China's top legislature concludes standing committee session

China

China's top legislature concludes standing committee session

2025-12-27 20:19 Last Updated At：12-28 13:37

The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded its 19th session in Beijing on Saturday.

At the closing meeting, lawmakers voted to adopt a Law on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals, revisions to the Fisheries Law, the Civil Aviation Law, the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, and the Foreign Trade Law, as well as a decision to approve a report by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee on the progress of legislative review and cleanup and related handling measures.

President Xi Jinping signed six presidential orders to promulgate the laws and the decision.

Zhao Leji, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the closing meeting.

The meeting decided to submit the draft environmental code, the draft law on promoting ethnic unity and progress, and the draft law on national development planning to the fourth session of the 14th NPC for further deliberation.

The fourth session of the 14th NPC will open in Beijing on March 5, 2026, according to a decision adopted at Saturday's meeting.

Lawmakers voted to adopt the NPC Standing Committee's interpretation of article 292 of the Criminal Procedure Law.

The meeting also voted to adopt reports on the examination of deputies' proposals and on the qualification of certain deputies and other personnel-related bills.

Addressing the closing meeting, Zhao called for NPC deputies to study and discuss the above three drafts carefully in preparation for the upcoming fourth session of the 14th NPC.

Zhao urged efforts to fully recognize the country's achievements over the past year in pressing ahead under pressure and advancing toward higher national development goals, emphasizing gaining a deeper understanding of the major new accomplishments made in the cause of the Party and the country during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

He stressed the need to accurately grasp the overall requirements, main goals, policy orientation and key tasks for economic work next year, and ensure effective implementation based on the NPC's functions and responsibilities.

After the closing meeting, the NPC Standing Committee held a lecture for lawmakers.

The 19th session of the 14th NPC Standing Committee was held from Monday through Saturday.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.