China's reform to be legalistic: senior official

Chinese authorities must respect the Constitution and laws when carrying out the country's grand reform plan, said a senior official with the top legislature  on Sunday.

The reform must be done in line with laws, said Kan Ke, deputy director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual parliamentary session.[Special coverage]

The administration must consider legislation when it plans a reform measure and, if a new law or law amendment is needed, the legislative procedure should be initiated before the reform measure is carried out, Kan urged.

In the 1980s, when China's legal system was not in place, many reform measures were adopted without proper legal arrangements, but times have changed, he said.

The country currently has 242 laws covering almost every aspect of political and social life so most reform measures will require the passing of a new law, or revision or abolition of an existing one, Kan pointed out.

On the other hand, he said, the top legislature will expend more efforts in legislation work that is urgently needed for pushing forward the reform.

There have been many recent examples of law changes to user in reform. In November, at the third plenary session of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the country's leadership decided to abolish the system of re-education through labor, as a move of judicial reform.

In December, the NPC Standing Committee adopted a resolution to abolish the system, marking the formal termination.

Last year, the NPC Standing Committee also revised 19 laws to facilitate the institutional reform of the State Council.

For the founding of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the State Council sought authorization from the top legislature to make provisional adjustments to the legal regulations on administrative approval and business registration.