China promotes law-based administration: White paper

A white paper issued by China's State Council Information Office on Dec 15 said the country has promoted law-based administration to protect the people's legitimate rights and interests.

According to the white paper, titled "New Progress in the Legal Protection of Human Rights in China," the country has accelerated the process of defining in law the administrative structure and its functions, powers, procedures and responsibilities, prohibited administrative organs from expanding power beyond the law, and confined the exercise of power in an institutional "cage."

China has been pressing ahead with the reform of administrative approval. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the State Council departments have canceled the requirement for administrative approval on 618 items, according to the white paper.

China has implemented the system of power or responsibility list, through which the public can obtain information about government functions, duties and powers, and their legal basis. By 2016, 31 provincial-level governments had published such lists, said the white paper.

To build a responsible government, China has set up a mechanism of internal legitimacy review of major decisions, and explored the means to establish and implement a lifelong liability accounting system for major decisions and a retrospective mechanism to hold people accountable for wrong decisions, it said.