Chinese govt to bring in new laws on governance
The Chinese government has said it will make new laws on national security, monopolies, education and culture, signalling that an ongoing crackdown on various industrial sectors will continue. The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and the state council, or China’s cabinet, publicised the plans late on Wednesday as part of a five-year plan for “building a law-based government”.
President Xi Jinping, perceived as China’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong, has made “rule of law” one of his several signature aspects of governance style, which will be extended if - as expected - he seeks a third term next year.
The CPC and the government said in a blueprint for the five years to 2025 that they would also improve legislation around public health by amending the infectious disease law and the “frontier health and quarantine law”.
It is rare for the CPC and the government - though the latter is an extension of the former - to jointly issue a document, published by the Xinhua news agency. “It (the new document) urges improving government functions in various fields, including economic adjustment, market supervision, social management, public service, and environmental protection,” Xinhua said on the 10-point plan.
In the document, China’s top leadership urged “governments at all levels to promote lawbased administration with the help of digital technologies, including the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence”.
On improving the law-based business environment, the plan calls for concrete efforts to prevent the administrative power from eliminating or stifling competition. “It also promises strengthened enforcement of anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition laws.”
‘Huawei CFO committed commercial dishonesty’
A senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies committed fraud because of what she said during a meeting with a bank official, and what she did not say, a Canadian government lawyer told an extradition hearing on Wednesday.
Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and the company’s chief financial officer, at Vancouver’s airport in 2018. The US wants her extradited to face fraud charges. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise.
The US accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of US sanctions. It says Meng, 49, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.