China legislates against govt abuse of power, nonfeasance
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-24 18:56

Local governments have been seen quite active in bulldozing private residences to pave the way for urban construction, which result in widespread disputes and protests across the country.

At the same time, they have done little to stop local factories that are draining out waste water and belching out foul smoke.

To curb the wide spread government abuses of power and nonfeasance on other occasions, China's national legislature on Saturday began reviewing the country's first administrative mandatory law.

It aims to tell the government how to limit personal freedom of certain individuals and freez their properties for the purpose of protecting the public interests, said Xin Chunying, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Saturday when explaining the draft law to the parliament.

"Because of the lack of the administrative mandatory law, some government bodies have been found to be lax in law enforcement in face of severe violation of the statute, while on other occasions abusing their power of mandatory sanction," she said.

According to the draft law, no mandatory sanction by the government shall be carried out unless it is provided for by the law, and it shall be enforced by the government body with authorization by the law.

To counter the widely-complained government intrusion of private property and illegal check up of business account books, the draft law says the government body must show legal basis in advance, otherwise "the related party has the right to refuse."

"Commodities of small vendors along the street shall be confiscated by law-enforcement bodies for the purpose of maintaining street order," it says.

One of the important of mandatory sanctions is they should be carried out in a proper manner to minimize the losses that may occur to the receivers, Xin said.

According to her, the draft law does not apply when the government take emergency measures in case of disasters, public health crisis or social order crisis, or government orders on financial matters, or technical monitor and control measures on export or import goods, because they are or will be covered by separate laws.