China's top legislature opens standing committee session

BEIJING - The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, opened its 26th session on Saturday to prepare for the upcoming fourth annual session of the 13th NPC, which will open on March 5.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the session's first plenary meeting. A total of 168 members of the NPC Standing Committee attended the meeting.

Lawmakers reviewed the work report of the NPC Standing Committee, which will be submitted to the annual assembly of the legislature in March for deliberation.

They also reviewed the draft agenda for the NPC annual session, the draft name list of the session's presidium and secretary-general, and the draft name list of members invited to sit in on the annual session as non-voting participants.

A draft law on stamp-duty tax was submitted to the session for the first reading. The draft will keep the current taxation framework and tax levels generally unchanged.

Lawmakers also deliberated a law-enforcement report of the State Council, a Supreme People's Court report on its pilot reform project, a deputy qualification report, and personnel-related bills.

Li also presided over a meeting of the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee after the meeting.