Southern Metropolis Daily:

Strengthening the rule of law in the healthcare sector is of great significance to its healthy development. Our weaknesses in this regard have been exposed by COVID-19. What has been done to strengthen legislation in the healthcare sector and provide legal safeguards for public health? What progress has been made? Thank you.

Xu Anbiao:

Thank you for your questions. Prosperity for all is impossible without health for all. Health is the common pursuit of the people. The rule of law is a strong guarantee for the development of healthcare. Over the past decade, China has proactively advanced legislation in healthcare and strengthened legal safeguards for public health. The Coordination Team under Central Committee for Comprehensive Law-based Governance has fully played its role as a coordinator for legislation, actively coordinating and promoting legislation in healthcare and introducing important legislation in a timely manner.

First, the Law on the Promotion of Basic Medical and Health Care, the fundamental and comprehensive law in healthcare, has been enacted. The idea of big health and big healthcare has been fully implemented, and basic principles, major systems, and measures of safeguards of healthcare have been developed. The practical experience of medical reform has been summarized; the tiered diagnosis and treatment system and family doctor services have been promoted; the primary-level healthcare service system has been established and improved; and the career development mechanism linking counties, townships, and villages has been developed. All of these efforts have contributed to channeling quality medical resources down to the community level. 

Second, the Pharmaceutical Administration Law has been revised, and the Vaccine Administration Law has been enacted. These two laws have fully implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's requirement of applying the most rigorous standards and taking the strictest supervision and the harshest penalties and accountability for violations, giving top priority to the safety and health of the people. By improving the evaluation and approval systems for medicine, boosting the reserve and supply systems, and strengthening whole-process supervision over research, production, and distribution of vaccines, these two laws have ensured the safety, effectiveness, and accessibility of medicines and vaccines.

Third, the Law on Traditional Chinese Medicine has been enacted. The management system, in accordance with characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine, has been built; the uniqueness and advantages of traditional Chinese medicine have been preserved and exploited to the fullest; and the development of the traditional Chinese medicine service system has been advanced. 

These laws have been tested in the practice of fighting against COVID-19 and have played critical roles.

In the wake of COVID-19, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has made work plans for the enactment and revision of laws to strengthen the system of legal guarantees for public health. Great progress and achievements have been made to strengthen the enactment and revision of laws, which can be summarized into three "a group ofs.”

A group of important laws have been formulated, revised, and introduced. The formulation of the Biosecurity Law has improved the prevention and control system for biosecurity risks, including outbreaks of new infectious diseases and major animal or plant epidemics. The Physician Law has been enacted, protecting the most admirable people in the new era with the rule of law; the decision has been made for a complete ban of illegal wildlife trade; and the Animal Quarantine Law has been revised. As public health covers a lot of ground, specific regulations have been made regarding the enactment and revision of other relevant laws.

A group of draft laws have been submitted for the deliberation of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, including the Emergency Response and Management Law, the Wildlife Protection Law, and the amendment of the Stock-breeding Law. 

A group of important laws are  being drafted and revised. The enactment and revision of laws, including the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the Law on Preparedness for and Response to Public Health Emergencies, and the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, are being proactively advanced. Thank you.

Cover News:

The sentence bargaining system has attracted great attention from the public since arrangements were made during the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Party Central Committee. What changes have been brought about by the sentence bargaining system to the criminal justice system? What achievements have been made in advancing the modernization of national governance? In the application of the system, how can the judiciary strike a balance between punishment and deterrence and tolerance and incentive to ensure fairness and justice? Thank you.

Chen Guoqing:

Thank you for your questions. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, as the economic society has developed comprehensively, China's public security has continuously improved. The pattern of crimes committed across the country has changed remarkably with a continuous decrease in serious crimes and a constant increased proportion of 80% taken up by misdemeanor cases. Since the formal establishment of the system of sentence bargaining in the October of 2018, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the close coordination between procuratorial organs and other political legal organs, we have actively implemented the system. At present, the application rate of this system has maintained above 85%. It's fair to say that we have achieved normalized application of such a system, which has played a major role in accelerating the upgrading of the mode of criminal procedure to be collaborative and the transformation from focusing on "criminal punishment" to "good governance" so as to promote the modernization of national governance.

The effects of this system have been mainly demonstrated in the following aspects. Firstly, the punishment of crime has been implemented in a more effective and timely manner. Since the suspects and defendants pleaded guilty and accepted their punishments, judicial organs could ascertain the facts of the crimes in a timely manner. It has also been helpful to divide and disintegrate crimes. Secondly, it has played an important role in promoting social harmony and stability. The system of sentence bargaining is conducive to resolve social problems and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of victims. At present, it has become a norm for defendants to plead guilty as the appeal rate reduced to 3.8 percent after the first trial, 15.4 percentage points lower than that of other criminal cases. Thirdly, the rights of the concerned parties have been better protected. A total of 3.339 million suspects and defendants have received legal assistance from duty lawyers in accordance with the law. The application rate of non-custodial coercive measures has continuously increased. Procurotorial organs have provided judicial aid to 72,000 victims who live in trouble resulting from criminal violations. Fourth, fairness and justice have been promoted in a better and faster way. We have shortened the time from investigation to trial for misdemeanor cases that are suitable for the system of sentence bargaining. Among those cases, the percentage taken up by the ones that are applicable to quick judging procedure and summary procedure reached 74.6%, greatly improving the efficiency of litigation and saving judicial resources. 

Certainly, it should be emphasized that the system of sentence bargaining doesn't mean uniform leniencies for all cases. In dealing with sentence bargaining cases, procurotorial organs should fully and accurately implement the criminal policy of combining punishment with leniency. For those crimes that seriously endangered national security and public security, serious violent crimes, gang crimes, crimes harming vulnerable groups such as women and children, and other crimes with strong subjective malignancy and egregious circumstances, we should implement severe punishments regardless of a guilty plea or punishment acceptance. For those misdemeanor cases with circumstances of severe publishment, we should deal with those strictly and cautiously grasp the scope of lenient punishment. Thank you.

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