III. We strengthened and improved legislative work in the new era to provide legal guarantees for reform, opening up, and stability.

Upholding integration between reform and the rule of law, the Standing Committee drew up its legislative program, held meetings on its legislative work and forums on local legislation, and made timely arrangements for legislative work. We formulated 8 laws, revised 47 laws, and adopted 9 decisions on legal issues and other major issues. These legislative items fell into three main categories according to their functions: first, promoting and ensuring the implementation of major decisions and arrangements through legislation with a focus on the overall work of the Party and the state; second, guaranteeing that major reforms have a legal basis through enacting and revising laws with a focus on comprehensively deepening reform; and third, bringing legislative tasks in key areas to a successful conclusion with a focus on accelerating efforts to establish a socialist rule of law system and build China into a socialist country governed by the rule of law.

The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up. Our experience over these four decades has shown us that the rule of law is integral if we are to effectively perform our work in promoting reform, development, and stability, and that even greater emphasis must be placed on the rule of law as reform and opening up pushes deeper. With a view to advancing reform, opening up, and socialist modernization from this new historical starting point, the Standing Committee accelerated legislation in the economic sector for the purpose of refining the legal system for the socialist market economy. We revised numerous laws so as to promptly resolve the problem of legal provisions not matching up with the practical needs of development. A law-based environment is the best environment for doing business. The draft foreign investment law which we will deliberate at this session is a full reflection of new ideas, approaches, and measures in reform and opening up, and will play an important role in lifting China toward a new stage of high-level opening up in the new era. The Standing Committee has already reviewed the draft twice, and we are confident that through the joint effort of all deputies, we will be able to bring this major legislative task to a successful conclusion. ChinaЎЇs E-commerce market is the largest in the world, employing tens of millions of people and involving hundreds of millions of consumers. Enactment of the E-commerce Law represents an extremely important move for promoting the sound development of E-commerce, as well as protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and ensuring fairness in this market. The consensus throughout all sectors of society is that this law will promote the healthy development of E-commerce by providing support, standards, innovative ideas, and guarantees, that it will protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, operators of E-commerce platforms, and people who run online businesses, and that it will ensure fair competition and order in the market. Meanwhile, revision of the Law on the Contracting of Rural Land has offered reassurance to contractors and operators of rural land and played a significant role in promoting agricultural and rural development by deepening reform of the rural land system and stabilizing and improving rural land contract relations through legal means. In addition, the Standing Committee formulated the Tax Law on Farmland Used for Nonagricultural Purposes and the Vehicle Purchase Tax Law, and revised the Company Law, the Civil Aviation Law, the Electric Power Law, the Port Law, and the Law on Corporate Income Tax, thereby facilitating reform and development in these areas.

Implementing the principles from the 19th National Congress of the Party and the Third Plenary Session of the 19th Party Central Committee, the Standing Committee revised laws and produced decisions to improve the laws for state institutions and organizations in accordance with the plan for deepening institutional reform approved at the First Session of the 13th NPC. We made a decision on adjusting the duties of administrative bodies in institutional reform of the State Council, an issue which touched upon legal provisions, and coordinated the revision of 316 articles of 32 laws involved in institutional reform, such as the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law. We also made a decision on the exercise of powers by the China Coast Guard to protect maritime rights and enforce maritime law, and formulated the Regulations on Firefighter Ranks. By doing so, we responded promptly to demands put forward through institutional reform for adjustment of the law, thus providing legal guarantees for the smooth implementation of institutional reform, and ensuring the orderly linkage of reforms and steady continuation of relevant work. We revised the Civil Service Law, incorporated our practice in reforms concerning a salary system for public servants based on both position and rank into the law, and accelerated reform of the civil servant classification system. We revised the Organic Law of the PeopleЎЇs Courts, the Organic Law of the PeopleЎЇs Procuratorates, and the Criminal Procedure Law, formulated the PeopleЎЇs Juror Law and the Law on International Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters, and put forward decisions on the establishment of the Shanghai Financial Court and on several issues regarding litigation procedures for cases involving patents and other intellectual property rights. These steps consolidated and furthered our achievements in reform of the judicial system. We also revised the Organic Law of VillagersЎЇ Committees and the Organic Law of Urban ResidentsЎЇ Committees, thus improving primary-level governance systems.

Putting a people-centered approach into practice, the Standing Committee expedited legislation in the fields of social development and ensuring and improving living standards so as to safeguard the peopleЎЇs rights and interests and enhance public wellbeing through the rule of law, and advance the settlement of issues of greatest concern to the people through legal means. Compiling the civil code is a major legislative task that was put forward at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. Building on our previous work, the Standing Committee sped up its efforts and drafted the individual books of the civil code, which consists of 1,034 articles in 6 books. We conducted an overall review as well as individual reviews of the draft books on contracts and torts, making solid progress toward the goal of completing the compilation of the civil code by 2020. We revised the Personal Income Tax Law, advanced reform of the taxation system, and improved the tax structure, with about 80 million people already exempted from paying taxes on their salary in accordance with the law. We revised the Social Insurance Law, and implemented the integration of maternity insurance and basic medical insurance for urban workers nationwide. Legislation in the medical and health care sector has a direct bearing on the fundamental interests of the general public. The Standing Committee has already conducted two reviews of the draft law on promoting basic medical and health care. Responding to the problems exposed in the Changsheng vaccine case, the Standing Committee put great emphasis on protecting the peopleЎЇs immediate interests through legal means, and expedited dedicated legislation on vaccine management, with preliminary review of the draft law on vaccine management already completed. Through the establishment of a legal system for vaccine oversight and control covering all stages of the process from R&D and production to distribution and inoculation, we devoted concrete efforts to protecting the lives and health of the public.

Stepping up our efforts to build an ecological civilization, we formulated the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution, and revised laws including the Environmental Impact Assessment Law and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, in an effort to improve the system of laws for strict environmental protection. The Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution provides strong legal guarantees for the campaign to clean up and preserve our soil. Together with the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, it is part of a three-in-one legal network for protecting the environment through multidimensional controls.

The Standing Committee gave priority to safeguarding national security in legislative work. We formulated the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs, and revised the Anti-Terrorism Law and the National Intelligence Law, promoting the incorporation of core socialist values into legislation. By formulating and enacting the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs, we have encouraged people to carry forward the great deeds of heroes and martyrs and the spirit of patriotism, strongly opposed historical nihilism, and provided legal guarantees for fighting against acts that would smear and slander heroes and martyrs or distort and desecrate their legacy, and for safeguarding national security and ideological security in particular. This has been met with a positive response from all sectors of society. The formulation of the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs shows that justice and reason must prevail.