China's cabinet begins major clean-up of regulations

BEIJING - The State Council will render "a batch" of rules and regulations defunct during a three-year, comprehensive clean-up of cabinet documents in a bid to cut red tape and inject market vitality.

The clean-up, already under way, targets all documents drafted since the founding of the New China in 1949, and those that have expired or are either incompatible with current laws and regulations or covered by new rules will be invalidated, according to a decision approved by Premier Li Keqiang and made public Wednesday.

"The move is aimed to further simplify administrative procedures, designate functions to lower organs, optimize service and reform, boost business start-ups and innovation for the public, stimulate market vitality and social creativity," the cabinet said in a statement accompanying the decision.

An initial check has already led to immediate abatement of 489 such documents.

The cabinet also urged local organs to streamline their own rules and regulations in a timely fashion, describing the clean-up as a move to accelerate the progress of building a government based on the rule of law and safeguarding the authoritative status of cabinet documents.