China’s top legislature began its 25th session on Monday in Beijing, a five-day sitting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress with ten legislative bills and eight oversight reports on the draft agenda set by the Council of Chairpersons on October 22.
Three bills return for a third and most likely final review: the Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law, the Antarctic Activities and Environmental Protection Law, and a revision of the Water Law. Three more are at second reading: the Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law, which Xinhua reported on Monday includes a provision on promoting a fair and equitable global anti-corruption governance system and runs to six chapters and 47 articles; the State-Owned Assets Law; and the Finance Law, a foundational statute for the financial sector that specialist trackers expect to pass by spring 2027 rather than this week.
The largest first-reading item is the revision of the Renewable Energy Law, submitted on Monday at 10 chapters and 76 articles against the current law’s eight chapters and 33. The draft strengthens development and construction management, production and transmission rules, market trading and pricing mechanisms, and consumption responsibilities, building on the minimum renewable consumption share system that took effect in August. A revision of the Tax Collection Administration Law and an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law are also before the session, along with a bill to ratify the agreement establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, the intergovernmental AI body China has proposed.
Two things did not happen are as notable as the agenda. The draft agenda contains no fiscal items, including no change to the government debt quota, which market commentary ahead of the session had identified as the measure that would signal a fresh stimulus step. And every item named here is a draft at a stated reading stage: adoption, where it comes, will be a separate event at the session’s close on Friday or at a later sitting.