Title: Creating a New Chapter for the Rule of Law in China — Press Conference Focuses on Advancing Comprehensive Governance by Law During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period
A press conference titled “Starting Strong in the 15th Five-Year Plan” was held on May 27, detailing progress in advancing comprehensive governance by law.
A senior official stated that efforts will be made to legalize all aspects of national work, fully leveraging the foundational, stabilizing, and long-term safeguarding role of the rule of law. The goal is to build a more complete socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and a higher level of socialist rule-of-law state, opening up new prospects for the rule of law in China.
Accelerating the Formation of a Complete Legal Norm System
Good laws are the prerequisite for good governance.
Plans include drafting laws on farmland protection and quality improvement, state assets, finance, financial stability, social assistance, medical security, childcare services, and anti-cross-border corruption; and amending laws on enterprise bankruptcy, banking supervision, teachers, and road traffic safety.
At the press conference, a deputy director introduced laws slated for formulation or revision in 2026. Some address major national priorities, while others focus on key daily matters, all closely tied to implementing the goals and tasks of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
It was reported that the legislative plan for the 14th National People’s Congress Standing Committee is progressing smoothly. Among the 79 priority projects to be submitted for deliberation during the term, 58 have been completed, achieving a completion rate of 73.4%, with other legislative projects advancing in an orderly manner. Next year, work will begin on drafting the legislative plan for the next National People’s Congress Standing Committee.
The deputy director emphasized that thorough research and discussion, broad solicitation of legislative project proposals from various parties, and careful study of suggestions from National People’s Congress deputies will be conducted to scientifically arrange legislative projects, providing strong legal support for the smooth implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
“We must strengthen legislation in key areas, emerging fields, and foreign-related domains, and establish a rapid response mechanism for legislation on matters where public demands are strong and practice urgently requires it,” the senior official said. Efforts will also be made to improve coordination between party regulations and national laws, enhancing the systematic, integrated, coordinated, and timely nature of legislation to build a more scientific, complete, unified, and authoritative legal norm system.
A deputy minister introduced plans to draft regulations on building a unified national market, using institutional rigor to break through bottlenecks hindering its establishment. At the same time, comprehensive legislation on the healthy development of artificial intelligence and legislation on the low-altitude economy will be accelerated.
Using High-Quality Judicial Services to Support High-Quality Development
The rule of law is the best business environment.
A deputy minister reported that since 2025, nationwide campaigns have been organized to standardize law enforcement involving enterprises, addressing 57,000 issues, lifting property seizures worth 1.38 billion yuan, returning 2.22 billion yuan in frozen funds, and releasing 8.98 billion yuan by modifying or lifting freezes on 199,000 accounts.
The deputy minister stated that the next step will involve strictly standardizing administrative inspections of enterprises, advancing integrated reforms for “one thing in administrative inspections,” and establishing systems for graded, categorized, and list-based inspections to minimize impact on normal business operations.
The 15th Five-Year Plan proposes “developing new productive forces” and “deepening the integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation.”
A senior judge indicated that in response to new business forms in the digital economy, the court is researching and formulating normative documents on judicial protection for artificial intelligence and data property rights. This includes improving adjudication rules for data ownership, data transactions, and AI-generated content to help refine the basic data element system and promote deep integration of digital technology with the real economy.
Prosecutorial legal supervision is a key component of the rule-of-law supervision system. A deputy prosecutor general stated that prosecutors will comprehensively strengthen supervision over case filing, investigation, trial, and enforcement, with a focus on supervising effective judgments, coercive measures involving personal rights, measures such as “seizure, impoundment, and freezing,” enforcement of criminal penalties, and civil judgments and rulings, to enhance the targeting of supervision.
Additionally, the deputy prosecutor general said that lawful prosecutorial investigations will be conducted.
