The Seventh Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, which will be held on December 25, plans to deliberate the draft of the Criminal Law Amendment (12) (Second Reading Draft).
** attaches great importance to the development of private enterprises, requires the protection of the property rights of private enterprises and the rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, and puts down the requirements for equal treatment of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises from the system and law. On December 22, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held a press conference, at which spokesman Zang Tiewei introduced the legislative work and answered questions from reporters. Zang Tiewei said that the current revision of the Criminal Law will expand the current Criminal Law Articles 165, 166, and 169 to state-owned enterprises and other relevant personnel to illegally operate similar businesses, illegally make profits for relatives and friends, favoritism and fraud, and reduce the number of shares at low prices, and expand the crimes of enterprise assets to private enterprises, and at the same time make provisions based on the situation and characteristics of the development of private enterprises.
The purpose is to punish the internal personnel of private enterprises and personnel in key positions through various illegal means to 'damage the enterprise and enrich their private interests', strengthen the protection of private enterprises and private entrepreneurs, further enhance the confidence of private entrepreneurs, and provide legal means for private enterprises to effectively prevent and punish internal corruption crimes. Zang Tiewei said that in recent years, with the development and growth of the private economy, there are some new situations and new problems in the corruption of private enterprises, and the current criminal law stipulates that the personnel of state-owned enterprises illegally operate similar businesses, illegally make profits for relatives and friends and other related corruption crimes, and these behaviors are gradually emerging and growing in private enterprises, and need to be punished according to law.
In addition, the Second Reading Draft further improves the circumstances for heavier punishment for the crime of bribery, further revises and integrates the original provisions, and accurately and properly delineates the circumstances for heavier punishment.
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that "insist on investigating bribery together". Zang Tiewei introduced that this revision is another important revision to the crime of bribery on the basis of the Amendment (9) to the Criminal Law passed in 2015 to modify the crime of bribery, and further clearly stipulates from the criminal law that the criminal prosecution of some serious bribery situations will be increased. The amendment also further adjusts and increases the penalties for the crime of offering bribes by units, the crime of offering bribes to units, and other related bribery crimes, and strengthens the punishment of crimes.
The unscrupulous 'hunting' of party members and cadres by bribers is an important reason why the current increase in corruption still occurs, and bribery must not be condoned. Zang Tiewei pointed out that for a long time, in practice, there has been a situation where the punishment for bribery is weak. Judging from the relevant data, there is a large gap in the number of bribery cases investigated and dealt with in the same period. This kind of excessively lenient situation and failure to pursue bribery is not conducive to cutting off the causal chain of bribery crimes, and bribery is not forbidden. To systematically address the problem of bribery, it is necessary to further give play to the important role of the criminal law in promoting the system and mechanism of not daring to be corrupt, not being able to be corrupt, and not wanting to be corrupt.
Zang Tiewei said that after the adoption and implementation of the Amendment (12) to the Criminal Law, the relevant parties should accurately grasp the spirit of the amendment, strengthen and improve the relevant work, and increase the punishment of bribery while maintaining the high-pressure situation of punishing the most advanced crimes, and properly grasp the policy scale of investigating and punishing bribery. At the same time, from a social point of view, everyone should establish a sense of the rule of law and must not seek improper benefits through bribery.
National People's Congress WeChat official account).