Proposals opened to public scrutiny

Legislators have made great efforts to produce the draft of the general provisions of the civil law, according to Shi Hong, a leading official with the legal affairs commission of the NPC Standing Committee.

Following repeated calls for a civil code from legal professionals, the first step to its formulation began in March 2015, under the efforts of five institutes, including the Supreme People's Court and the NPC Standing Committee's legal affairs commission.

The draft was submitted to the Standing Committee, China's top legislative body, three times last year - in June, October and December - and on Wednesday it was submitted to the NPC for further discussion.

Each time the updated draft was read, it was published on the Standing Committee's official website to encourage discussion and suggestions from members of the public, Shi said, adding that in the past year, the NPC has received more than 70,000 suggestions from members of the public.

"We hope more improvements will be suggested during the ongoing two sessions," he said.

To deepen understanding of the causes of civil disputes and identify the civil rights that most require protection, four teams were established to research the issues and solicit opinions from members of the public, legal experts and officials with government departments in Beijing, Shanghai, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Sichuan province.

The aim of the draft is to provide basic information about protecting people's civil rights and to contribute to the formulation of the civil code, Shi said.