China is about to draft new laws on national security, technology innovation, monopolies and education, as well as in areas involving foreigners, the Chinese government said in a document published late on Wednesday.
The announcement signals that a crackdown on industry with regard to privacy, data management, antitrust and other issues would persist throughout the year.
The Chinese Communist Party and the government said in a plan for the five years to 2025, published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, that they would also improve legislation governing public health by amending China’s infectious disease law, and its “frontier health and quarantine law.”
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China is working for a return to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.
Regulations dealing with food and medicine, natural resources, industrial safety, urban governance and transport would also be strictly enforced, the government said.
Authorities aim to develop laws consistent with new sectors, such as the digital economy, Internet finance, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, they said, adding that they would also improve the response to emergencies.
They also laid out directives for the prevention and resolution of social conflicts, and reiterated an order for officials to “nip conflicts in the bud.”
Better legislation in areas such as education, race, religion and biosecurity is also being planned, they said.
The government has over the past few months reined in tech corporations with anti-monopoly or data security rules, and clamped down on tutoring companies, as the state increases its control of the economy and society.
Authorities last month used a law aimed at responding to foreign sanctions for the first time to countersanction former US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross and other US citizens, and last year imposed a National Security Law on Hong Kong, employing legal means to protect the Chinese government’s interests beyond the mainland border.
The party and the government asserted that a “rule of law government” must follow the party leadership.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has made “rule of law governance” a signature of his rule, which would be extended if he seeks a third five-year term next year.
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