Part Ⅰ The Economic Legal System in Highly Centralized Planned Economy System（1949－1978）

Before the implement of reform and opening up policy in 1978, China experienced a planned economy system with highly centralized feature. Under this system, the formulation and implementation of state plan was the key to the economy. “The essential feature of the economic activities was plan”, which means “the economic activities ran according to the state plan.”[1] Because the economic activities were based on the plan formulated by the government agencies, the enterprises carrying out specific business were actually the subsidiaries of government agencies. As a result, law was almost useless in economic activities and played little role throughout the process of planned economy system which was initiated in early 1950s, formed in late 1950s and declined in middle and late 1970s.

The earlier legal system, law enforcement institutions and its theory were totally repealed with the foundation of the PRC. [2]For example, the old civil law were completely abolished.[3] Thus, without inheriting any old legal tradition, the economic legal system in PRC was reestablished step by step and discontinuously. In early 1950s, several major economic regulations and rules were formulated, for instance, Decision of Unifying State’s Financial and Economic Work, Provisional Regulations on Budget and Final Accounts, Provisional Rules on Basic Construction Work, Land Reform Law, Modal Constitution for Advanced Rural Cooperatives, and Provisional Regulations on Industrial Enterprises of Joint Public and Private Ownership. Meanwhile, judicial organs, such as Economic Protection Tribunals were also set up.[4] However, very few economic legal documents were enacted in the following 3o years, which were very vague and general in contents and mostly just administrative orders rather than laws passed by the congress. Except for specific ones, such as Land Reform Law, most of those legal documents were also not consistently and effectively enforced.

The Common Program of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted in 1949 actually served as the interim Constitution,[5] which stipulated that, the state shall coordinate and regulate state-owned economy, co-operative economy, the individual economy of peasants and handicraftsmen, private capitalist economy and state capitalist economy. In this way, all components of the social economy could, with the state-owned economy remaining dominant, carry out division and co-ordination and play their respective parts in promoting the development of social economy as a whole. [6]Such provisions concerning Chinese basic economic system was stipulated further in the Constitution of 1954.[7] However, this policy was changed very quickly. From 1953 to 1956, China carried out a large-scale socialist transformation of private economy including individual economy of peasants and handicraftsmen and private capitalist industry and commerce by leading individual economy to become a co-operative economy and buying the capitalist industries and commerce peacefully. [8]Through mutual assistance groups, elementary and advanced rural cooperatives, the individual economy did become a co-operative economy. [9] The advanced rural cooperatives were widely set up in 1956, which marked the completion of socialist transformation of rural areas and agriculture in China. The movement of People's Communes was initiated in September 1958 and basically completed in the end of this year. In fact, the People’s Communes in the rural areas were a form of collective ownership economy [10] with “a combination of politics and society”.[11] The collective economy in cities and towns was formed gradually since the 1950s, [12]which was the major part of the cooperative movement of the individual handicrafts in urban districts. The state-owned economy played a dominant role. All enterprises relating to the economic life of the country or dominating national interest and people’s livelihood were under the unified operation of the state.[13] However, there was still no comprehensive legal norms regulating the organizations of enterprises in this period. Law of the People's Republic of China of Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People(1988), Regulation on Collective Ownership Enterprises in Countryside(1990), and Regulation on Collective Ownership Enterprises in Cities and Towns(1991) were enacted one after another till the following decade, when all the enterprises were facing challenges caused by the trend of reform.

The legal system was less and less important in guarding economic activities after China established the highly centralized planned economy dominated by the state ownership. For a clear explanation, the contract law in economic transactions is taken as an example. Although the Provisional Regulations on Concluding Contracts among Government Agencies, State-owned Enterprises and Cooperatives, the first rule regarding contract in China, was issued by the Committee of Finance and Economy of Government Administrative Council in 1950 and around forty other regulations concerning contracts were adopted by relevant ministries in the following five years, . the contract system was actually suspended from the late 1950s to the early 1960s due to the prohibition of free commodities production and exchange.. The contract system was resumed shortly from 1962 to 1966 but repealed before common practice with the start of the Cultural Revolution. [14]As a matter of fact, the definition of “contract” in this period was fundamentally different from that in the market economy. Contracts here were signed and performed according to the state plans instead of the free agreements of the parties concerned. They served as powerful tools and safeguards for the implementation of state plans. Till 1978, it was still firmly believed by the policy makers that the violations of contracts meant the destruction of socialist planned economy.[15] Since the economy was basically limited to state-owned one during this period, most production and consumption goods were allocated and transferred according to the state plans and trade credit was confined and abolished. The check was not allowed to be used by individuals since1952 and promissory note was forbidden domestically as well as bill of exchange, which could be used only for international trades. [16]Free trades that violated or were not covered by the state plans were regarded as criminal offences in a long term, even after the taking of policy of reform and opening-up.[17]

Under the planned economy, there was no fundamental civil law system. Although the sketch of Civil Law was drawn up by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in 1954 and finished in December 1956, the drafting process was suspended afterwards due to political movements. Civil Law was redrafted in 1962, when China made efforts to develop the commodity production and exchange, and completed as a test draft in July 1964, but broken off gain due to the political movement started in 1964. [18]In this context, the property law in China then was extremely undeveloped. The Constitution of 1954 provided that the state shall protect the land ownership of the peasants and other ownership of means of production.[19] However, due to the socialist transformation and the movement of people' s communes, peasants as well as other individuals had no ownership on lands and major means of production. What the state protected was only “the ownership of the labor income, savings, housing and other consumption goods”.[20] Other property, such as stock, intellectual property was almost inexistent in economic life. Comprehensive intellectual property legal system was not established in this time, although there were a few half-baked regulations relating to intellectual property. For instance, the trademark system was extremely incomplete and the patent system almost did not work in reality. Only four patents were authorized from the adoption of The Provisional Regulations on Protecting the Right of Invention and Patent in July 1950 till its abandonment in November 1963.[21] The protection of copy right mainly relied on some administrative legal rules, which were very general in content, for example, the Rules on Combating Copying Books Without Authorization, the Provisional Rules on Authors’ Remuneration of Literature and Social Science Books(draft) .[22]

Regarding the financial and taxation system，the distribution of financial resources between central and local governments was always the key to the reform of financial system. The Regulations on the Reform of Financial Administration System adopted in 1957 stipulated the scope, proportion and forms of financial revenue and expenditure between the central and local governments. The Key Principles of National Tax Administration in 1950 marked the unification of Chinese tax administration and the establishment of new tax system in the PRC.[23] The Agricultural Tax Regulations in 1958 set up a proportional tax system on the imposition of agricultural tax. The Regulations on Consolidated Industrial and Commercial Tax in 1958 started the second major reform on industrial and commercial tax. [24]And in 1973, industrial and commercial tax was universally collected, which marked the third major reform. Afterwards, only industrial and commercial tax was paid by the state-owned enterprises and industrial and commercial tax together with industrial-commercial income tax by the collective enterprises. The basic feature of tax reform in this stage was that tax types became fewer and fewer and tax system became simpler and simpler. [25]China also tried to increase financial revenue by issuing public debt. For instance, the Decision on Issuing Public Debt in Kind was passed through in December 1949, which allowed the issuance of public debt in kind in 1950.[26] To accelerate economy construction, China drew up specific regulations on the issuance of public debt for national economy development each year from 1954 to 1958. However, the issuance of public debt was suspended since the end of 1950s for the belief in the financial principle of “no international debt and no domestic debt” .[27]

Generally, the economic legal system in this stage kept changing. It was attached much attention from 1949 to 1956, ignored from 1957 to 1961, restarted from1962 to1964, and finally abolished from 1965 to 1978. The rise and fall of economic legal system was attributed to several reasons. First, form the aspect of law notion, legal nihilism and law instrumentalism prevailed in turn, while legal nihilism was dominating. [28]Therefore, even economic legal system was paid great attention in short period, it was merely the reflection of law instrumentalism. Second, concerning social governance mechanism, rule by man prevailed rather than rule of law. Even leaders' words were frequently regarded as law, thus the so-called law changed with leaders' words.[29] Third, in the process of developing economy, the ideas of “policy can replace law”, “only policies, no laws” and “policy itself is law” were the dominating values.[30] Finally, in the economic system, the operational mechanism of planned economy system left little room for the function of laws.

Part Ⅱ The Economic Legal System in the Early Stage after the Policy of Reform and Opening up(1978-1992)

After 1978, China decided that the focus of its work should be shifted from class struggle to developing economy and started the great and still ongoing cause of reform and opening up. [31]After that, with the development of practices and theories, the economic system had been undergoing several vital changes: in 1982, the economic system was “planned economy supplemented by market mechanism”; in 1984, it was “planned commodity economy based on public ownership”; in 1987, it was “socialist commodity economy with the unification of plan and market mechanism”; in 1989, it was “the system of combination of plan economy and market mechanism” and in 1992, China put forward its goal of economic system reform—socialist market economy.[32] Generally, the fundamental approaches of Chinese reform and opening up policy included three major parts: firstly, in its foreign economic policy, attracting foreign capital and expanding exports were oriented; secondly, in its domestic policy in rural areas, the key of reform was the policy of “contract system with remuneration linked to output”;[33] Thirdly, in its domestic policy in urban areas, the key of reform was to increase the independence and vitality of enterprises and to rebuild the relationship between state and enterprises(most were state-owned enterprises).[34] The economic legal system in this stage was also based on the above three policies.

In order to expand international economic cooperation and technology exchanges, China enacted the Law on Chinese-foreign Equity Joint Ventures, allowing foreign companies，other enterprises and other economic organizations or individuals to hold joint ventures with Chinese companies, other enterprises and other economic organizations in China. [35]This Law recognized the legal status of Chinese-foreign joint ventures and protected the property of such ventures, which was an important symbol of the policy of opening up from legal perspective. In 1980 and 1981, China passed the Law of Income Tax of Chinese-foreign Equity Joint Ventures and the Law of Income Tax of Foreign Enterprises respectively, which provided exemption or other tax favorable treatment to foreign enterprises that were encouraged to develop. In the end of 1986, there had already been more than 3000 Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures in China. [36]At the same time, to further improve the investment environment, and protect the legitimate interests of the foreign investors and to enrich the organization forms of foreign enterprises and attract more foreign investment, China passed the Foreign Enterprise Law in 1986 and the Law on Chinese-Foreign Contractual Joint Ventures in 1988 and revised its Law on Chinese-foreign Equity Joint Ventures. Through these legislations, the foreign enterprise norms were set up.

In August 1980, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ratified the Regulation of Special Economic Zones of Guangdong Province to set up three special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong Province. In October of the same year, the State Council also approved the city of Xiamen to set up its special economic zone. By then, (the law set up) the system of special economic zones with Chinese Characteristics was set up. Such special economic zones were established in light of the experiences of free trade zones and export processing zones in foreign countries, where more favorable policies including exemption and reduction of tax were implemented in international economic activities.[37]

After spring of 1979, different forms of agricultural production responsibility system appeared in rural China, and finally “contract system with remuneration linked to output” became the major form of agriculture production. Although a lot of political controversies had emerged, there had already been 99.5% [38]of farmer’s production teams[39] carrying out “contract system with remuneration linked to output” in the November of 1982. “Contract system with remuneration linked to output” was not only a mode of production, but more important, was an arrangement of property right and legal norms. Based on this contractual system, the individuals or the families of farmers would have the autonomy of agriculture production and the property rights of means of production. The implementation of “contract system with remuneration linked to output” not only increased the income of farmers and promoted the economy development in rural areas, but also made the People’s Communes impossible to exist for the loss of its economic foundation. The Constitution of 1982 changed the system of “Combination of Politics and Society” into the separation of politics and society by establishing the governments in town level with the People’s Communes as purely economic organizations. [40]Until the end of 1984, the People’s Communes that existed for more than 2o years in China disappeared.[41] But only until the Amendment of Constitution in 1993, the people’s communes were abolished in law.[42] The establishment and development of “contract system with remuneration linked to output” not only benefited rural China but offered much experience for the reform of urban China; particularly, the arrangement of property rights and duties in that system helped to provide the legal awareness and practice experiences for the legislations of civil and commercial laws which focus on property relationship. Concerning the legislation on agriculture, the development of agriculture was influenced strongly by the national policy instead of law. [43]In this stage, the rural reform relating to major legal issues, particularly property rights was based on the state policy rather than law. Except for very few administrative rules such as Regulation on Collective Ownership Enterprises of Rural County, the legislations concerning agriculture lag much behind. [44]

The reform of state-owned enterprises, the key of urban reform, followed the basic principle of separating enterprises and government and expanding autonomy of enterprises. In 1979, the State Council issued documents including the Rules on the Expansion of the State-owned Enterprises’(SOEs) Autonomy of Operation and Management and launched the pilot project in a few state-owned enterprises. To promote the SOEs reform, several regulations concerned were issued including the Provisional Regulation on the Worker Representative Congress in the State-owned Industrial Enterprises (1981), the Provisional Regulation of the Work of Heads of SOEs(1982), Regulation on Rewards and Penalties Given to Enterprise Workers(1982), Provisional Regulation on State-owned Industrial Enterprises(1983). Based on the practice experience and the real situations of the more than 90,000 “industrial enterprises owned by the whole people”(whose gross product accounts for over 70% of the gross industrial domestic product), Law of Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People were enacted in 1998.[45] This Law abolished the relationship of non-separation between government and enterprises, recognized the independence of enterprises, giving them independent rights on property through the separation of rights of ownership and management. Meanwhile, it overcame the disadvantages of enterprises “eating from the same pot[46] of the state” [47]

During the process of SOEs reform, the private economy appeared and developed which was another important part of Chinese economy. At the beginning when the Constitution of 1982 was adopted, only individual economy of laborers was allowed. [48]However, the private enterprises which hired workers did emerge in practical economy activities.[49] The article 1 of the Amendment of the Constitution in 1988 provided that "The state permits the private sector of the economy to exist and develop within the limits prescribed by law. The private sector of the economy is a complement to the socialist　public　economy.　The　state　protects　the lawful rights and interests of the private　sector　of　the　economy,　and exercises guidance, supervision and control over the private sector of the economy". Accordingly, the Provisional Regulation on Private Enterprises was passed in 1988 in order to stimulate and regulate the private enterprises, and to protect their lawful interest.[50]

With the development of theory and practice of commodity production and commodity exchange after the reform and opening up policy, the enactment of laws regarding property and transactions were put into the agenda of the legislature. In November 1979, the drafting group was set up to draft the Civil Law Code.[51]Considering it was difficult to enact a comprehensive civil law code in a short time, the legislature took the approach of enacting the separate civil laws first and then enacting a comprehensive civil law code when conditions permitted. [52]Therefore, The General Principle of Civil Law was passed in 1986 which includes nine chapters: Basic Principles(Chapter I), Citizen (Natural Person)( Chapter II), Legal Persons(Chapter III), Civil Juristic Acts and Agency(Chapter IV), Civil Rights(Chapter V), Civil Liability(Chapter VI), Limitation of Action(Chapter VII), Application of Law in Civil Relations with Foreigners(Chapter VIII), Supplementary Provisions(Chapter IX). This Law offers the basic principles and institutions in civil law and serves as a fundamental law before the Civil Law Code comes into existence.[53]

In the civil law making process, the change of land law was notable. The ownership of land in China included state ownership and collective ownership. But before the reform of economic system, the law stipulated that no organization or individual may appropriate, buy, sell or lease land or otherwise engage in the transfer of land by unlawful means.[54] But in reality, the article 5 of the Law on Chinese-foreign Equity Joint Ventures provided that “right to the use of a site” could be a form of contribution to joint ventures. Although the law did not say whether the “right to the use of a site” invested in the joint venture was “Contractual Right” or “Real right”, the duration of joint venture generally could be 10-30 year or even 50 years or more for special project. As a result, such kind of “right to the use of a site” was seen as an early form of “the right to the use of the land” with the nature of “Real Right”.[55] Because of the diversity and long duration of land use, China changed its land law and established the institution of “the right to the use of the land” based on the idea of the separation of the right of ownership of land and the right to the use of land.[56] Such arrangement laid the institutional foundation for the rapid development of Chinese real estate market afterwards.

With the implementation of the policy of “revitalize domestic economy, open up to the outside world”, commodity production and commodity transaction inevitably become important part of the economy. As a result, the rules of contracts gradually played a leading role in economic transactions. In 1981, the Economic Contract Law was enacted, which was a huge development of contract law; after that, given the difference of foreign-related contracts, China passed its Foreign-related Economic Contract Law in order to promote the foreign trade; in 1987, to advance the development of science and technology and standardize the more and more activities of technology development, technology transfer, technology consulting and technology services, China passed the Law of Technology Contract. By then, China basically completed the contract law legislation.[57]

For the purpose of fair trial on economic disputes, the Chinese courts in all levels began to set up economic tribunals in the second half of 1979. All intermediate courts (except for some courts in remote area) and 93% of grass-root courts had set up economic tribunals by April 1985. [58]

The emergence of Chinese securities market was striking in that period. After 1981, China issued the treasury bills to the public according to the related regulations for several continuous years. Although the purpose of the treasure bills was to cut the financial deficit and maintain the fiscal balance and such treasure bills were not transferable, the treasure bills indicated the reappearance of securities after three decades, which marked the resumption of Chinese securities market. In November 1984, Shanghai Feiyue Audio Company publicly issued its stocks, which was the first public offering in China after the reform and opening up policy. In September 1986, Shanghai Trust Investment Company affiliated to Industrial and Commerce Bank of China operated the first stock exchange counter in China. In December 1990, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was set up and soon after that, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was also established in July 1991. Until then, the securities market of China was set up and developed very rapidly.[59]

The intellectual property system was initiated in the end of 1970s and started to develop with the implementation of the policy of reform and opening up.[60] In 1979, the registration of trademarks was resumed and in 1980, about 26,000 trademarks were registered. [61]In 1984, the Law of Patent was enacted and in the April 1 of next year, the first day after the enforcement of the Patent Law, a total of 3455 applications were received which was believed to set a new record in the world patent history by the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO).[62]The General Principle of Civil Law in the first time stipulates that “Citizens and legal persons shall enjoy rights of authorship (copyrights) and shall be entitled to sign their names as authors, issue and publish their works and obtain remuneration in accordance with the law”. In 1990, the Copyright Law was passed and in 1991, the Regulation on the Protection of Computer Software was adopted. Notably, the integration of Chinese intellectual property system into the world was unprecedentedly fast. As early as 1980, China had already submitted the application of membership to the WIPO and became a member of it; in 1984, China also submitted the application to join the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property and became its member in the next year; in 1989, again China submitted its application to WIPO to join the Madrid Agreement for International Registration of Trade Marks and obtained the membership in 1989;in July 1992, China submitted the application to the WIPO to join the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and submitted the application to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to join the Universal Copyright Convention respectively and in October 1992, China was accepted as a member of these two conventions.[63]

Before the reform of economic system, there had been no concepts of environment protection and environment law in China.[64] But since the policy of reform and opening up, China adopted a new environment policy which was different from the policy of “environment protection after economic development” and put much emphasis on environment legislation at the same time when China developed its economy. Many laws and regulations were enacted in this period including the Law of Environment Protection (Trail, 1979), the Marine Environmental Protection Law(1982), the Provisional Regulation on Pollutant Discharge Fee Collection(1982), the Regulation on Environment Protection in the Exploration and Development of Ocean Oil, the Prevention Regulation on Vessel Sea Pollution(1983), Law on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution(1984) , Law on Prevention and Control of Gas(1987). However, the environment laws were still not perfect and the law enforcement was not very strict, which was still a big challenge in Chinese environment protection. [65]

Generally, China had made much achievement in its economic legal system in this stage. Firstly, the laws were in the place in almost all the aspects of the economy. The legal system played an important role in protecting the rights of people in the economic activities, in maintaining economic order and in promoting economic development. Secondly, the ideology of law had been changed a lot. The importance of law in economy had been realized and the legal nihilism had been abandoned. Thirdly, although some laws were general in contents and some provisions of laws were not reasonable enough, the basic content and direction of the economic legal system were right which promoted the deepening of economic reform and the development of Chinese economy. Finally, even the structure of economic legal system was not perfect; however, the development of economic legal system in all aspects had laid solid foundation for the improvement of the legal system of Chinese market economy.

Part Ⅲ Economic Legal System under the Socialist Market Economy System （1992-2009）

In 1992, China proposed to establish a socialist market economy system which has long been the goal of reform until now. [66]In the amendment of Constitution in 1993, “the country carries out a planned economy on the basis of socialist public ownership” in article 15 of the Constitution was changed into “the country carries out a socialist market economy”. [67] In order to develop the socialist market economy, China comprehensively strengthen the building of economic legal system. The economic legal system made huge progress in this period [68] with the following characteristics. First, the economic legal system was built based on the need of practice with the purpose of promoting practice of economy development and reflecting the inherent requirements of market economy. [69] Second, Democracy has been strengthened in legislative process. Many measures have been taken to increase democracy in law making process, particularly, in the 21st century, in making important economic laws, such as property law, labor contract law, social insurance law, etc, people in relevant sectors and fields were asked to comment on the drafts which had also been published to the society to solicit public opinions. [70] Third, a complete structure of economic legal system has been built. In 2001, China proposed to bulit a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, which should include seven legal departments, namely, the Constitution and relevant laws, civil and commercial law, administrative law, economic law, social law, criminal law, litigation and non-litigation procedural law. [71] Four, the economic legal system was built in the context of globalization. In particular, emphasis was put in making domestic laws in line with international rules before and after the accession to WTO. For example, in accordance with WTO rule and China’s commitments, China adopted, revised and abolished a huge number of laws, administrative regulations, rules and other legal documents. [72]

An important feature during this period was that, theoretical studies of law began to have a direct and significant impact on economic legal system. For example, the Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in China's legal circles first put forward the theory that "socialist market economy is rule of law economy" and China should establish a socialist market economy legal system which also detailed the ideology and approach socialist market economy legal system and its basic structure.[73] This theory provided important theory basis and suggestions of policy for China's subsequent economic legal system. Another example, legal scholars proposed in 1995 that China should make property law, [74]and the scholars in civil law also presented a suggested property law draft. With the efforts and participation of academics, the Property Law was finally adopted after 12 years in 2007.[75] The third example, China initiated the drafting of contract law in 1993; scholars from 12 law schools of this country completed a suggested draft in 1995 which served as the basis of official draft prepared by legislature submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress after wide discussions. [76]The Chinese academics has kept learning all useful legal theories and experience of legislation in different jurisdictions, [77] which has been one of the most powerful driving force for the development of Chinese Economic legal system.

During this period, China's public-owned economy continue to develop with the reform policy, but the policy aiming at good corporate governance and management replaced the traditional policy of simply pursuing the number of enterprises and company scale. By the end of March 2009, there are 9.72 million enterprises, among which only 541.6 thousand are state-owned enterprises, [78] accounting for only 5.57% of the total enterprises, but the operation mechanism and corporate governance structure of state-owned enterprises have been much better. In order to protect state assets, play state-owned economy’s leading role in the national economy and promote the development of the socialist market economy, China adopted State-owned Assets Law in 2008. Along with the deepening of China's economic reform and the development of market economy, the policy on non-public ownership economy has been more and more friendly. In the Constitutional Amendment in 1999, the original provisions of the "private economy is a complement to socialist public economy" was revised into-- "non-public ownership economy is an important component of socialist market economy." [79]The 2004 constitutional amendment also amended the origin provision that "The individual economy and private economy should be under guidance, supervision and management" to "The country encourages, supports and guide the development of non-public ownership economy." [80]Abolishing or changing the laws, regulations and policies that limit the development of non-public economy to remove the institutional obstacle becomes one of the key policies of stimulating the development of China‘s non-public economy.[81] With the friendly laws and policies, China has seen the rapid development of non-public economy. By the end of March 2009, there are a total of 6.6427 million private enterprises and 29.48 million individual businesses. [82]

Chinese enterprises legislation passed a very confusing process in the early stage of reform and opening up policy, [83] but gradually two approach of legislation was followed. First, laws were enacted according to the different ownership of enterprises, for example, the Law of Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People (1988), Rural collective enterprises Regulation(1900), Urban Collective Enterprises Regulation(1991),Provisional Private Enterprises Regulation(1988), Law on Chinese-foreign Equity Joint Ventures (1979), Foreign Enterprise Law (1986), Law on Chinese-Foreign Contractual Joint Ventures (1988), These laws were made before the the policy of market economy;[84]although they are still effective legally, the scope of application of such laws and their roles have been shrinking. [85] Second, laws were made on the basis of legal forms of enterprise and investors liability, for example, Company Law (1993), Partnership Enterprise Law(1997), Personal-owned Enterprise Law (1999), Farmers Professional Cooperatives Law (2006).These laws have been revised and improved along with the deepening of economic reform and the increased awareness on the function of enterprise laws, [86] and have already become the main legal norms governing the enterprises’ organization and operation, and effectively promote the development of economy and prosperity of business. [87]

The enactment and revision of Company Law is a typical example in Chinese enterprise laws. After China's socialist transformation in the economic field in 1956, company as a corporate legal form disappeared in the subsequent 23 years. [88]Since China started the policy of reform and opening up, in more and more free economic environment, a large number of “companies” came out, particularly after China adoted the socialist market economy system, companies have grown rapidly across the country, whose number had increase from about 480,000 in 1992 to about 1 million at the end of 1993. [89] In order to regulate the enterprises form, safeguarding the economic order, China formulated the Company Law on December 1993.However, with the deepening of economic reform and the improvement of market economy system, Company Law lag behind the practice. Many problems came out, for example, too strict conditions on incorporation of companies, bad corporate governance in some companies, insufficient protection mechanism for shareholders especially small shareholders, lack of the fiduciary duty and the imposition of liability on the company directors, supervisors and managements.[90]Thus, in 2005, China made major changes on its Company Law.

After the adoption of market economy system, developing the basic civil and commercial law and economic law is China's most pressing task of legislation. In the laws regarding transactions, the formulation of contract law came as the first. Due to the seperation of the three contract laws, Economic Contract Law, Foreign-related Economic Contract Law and Technology Contract Law, there were repeated as well as inconsistent and sometimes even contradictory provisions in these three laws, but no general rules for all contracts or no rules for new emerging contacts (such as the finance lease contract)[91]. Therefore, China embarked on drawing up contract law in 1993 whose draft had been revised and examined repeatedly. In 1999, Contract Law was enacted while Economic Contract Law, Foreign-related Economic Contract Law and Technology Contract Law were abolished.[92] The Contact Law provides general rule of contracts in the Part of “General Provisions” and specific rules for 15 types of typical contracts in the Part of “Specific Provisions”.[93] The Contact Law reflects comprehensively the real requirement of market economy, with complete structure and advanced legislation techniques.[94] One even believes that, Contract Law represents the highest level in civil legislation in China.[95]

As the foundation of market economy, property system is also a focus during this period. In order to regulate the utilization of land and promote the development of real estate, China formulated Urban Real Estate Administration Law in 1994, revised again the Land Administration Law in 1998, and adopted Rural Land Contracting Law in 2002. The legal protection for personal property is being improved: in 2004, amending the 13th article in the Constitution “the country protects the lawfully earned income, saving, housing and other property rights of citizens” to “the property rights of citizens are inviolable”.[96] The individual “private property right” is confirmed through the constitution, and the property protected is not limited to substance for living but also that for production. It is widely realized in China that under the condition of socialist market economy, all market players with different ownership should interact and operate on equal foot to enjoy same rights, obey same rules and taking same responsibilities.[97] Therefore, as the basic property protection law, "Property Law" establishes the principle of equal protection of property rights, by ruling that “The state adopts socialist market economy and guarantees equal legal status and right to develop of all market players "," State, collective and private property rights and other rights of property are protected by law, no unit or individual shall violate”[98]. The principle confirmed in Property Law that public and private properties are “both recognized and equally protected”, was milestone in legislation in socialist history.[99]

China has further reinforced the legislation in intellectual property and has achieved significant social and economical effects, since the establishment of socialist economy system. For example, in 1993 when China first revised Trademark Law, there were more than 130,000 applications annually;[100] particularly, since 2002, the annual application of trademarks has been growing by almost 100,000, the first place in the work for seven years.[101] According to the latest statistics of National Intellectual Property Bureau, by the end of July, 2009, China has accepted 5,341,000 applications, among which 4,457,000 are domesticate ones, 884,000 foreign ones.[102] China continued to actively participate in all types of intellectual property rights international conventions: in 1994, joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty, in 1995, became the member of the Protocol on Madrid Agreement for International Registration of Trade Marks, and in 2001, formally signed the agreement on TRIPS. China continuously strengthened enforcement in intellectual property. For example, in the field of copyright protection from 1995 to 2004, copyright administrative departments at all levels confiscated 350 million pirated copies of infringement, among which 51,368 torts cases were accepted and 49,983 were handled.[103] To improve the level of the trial of IPR cases and the use of IPR professionals, difficult cases were dealt with more in a concentrated way. By December 2006, there have been 62 intermediate courts empowered to deal with patent property disputes cases of first instance, 31 courts for the patent disputes cases of second instance, 43 intermediate courts for layout-design of integrated circuits cases of first instance and 38 intermediate courts for new varieties of plants cases of first instance respectively.[104]

In this period, China paid special attention to laws on markets, especially the legislation in financial market which was being on continuously. In accordance with the situation of the market, China successively enacted People’s Bank of China Law (1995), Commercial Bank Law (1995), Negotiable Instruments Law (1995), Insurance Law (1995), Securities Law (1998), Trust Law (2001). The enactment of these laws provides basic rules to effectively regulate the financial market activities and maintain financial market order. With the rapid development of China's financial markets, existed financial laws are frequently modified to adapt to the development of financial market and economy. [105]The adoption and implementation of financial market laws has protected and promoted the development of financial market. For example, by the end of September, 2006, there were 1396 listed companies in mainland China, with a security market value of 5,228,279 million Yuan and the number of accounts of investors was 76,156,800; China became the third largest securities market in Asia.[106]

Since 1992, China's financial regulation system has changed frequently. According to “State Council's decision on the financial system reform” in 1993, China has established an independent macro control system in central bank, a financial institution system separating Policy-oriented finance and commercial finance, where state-owned commercial banks as main body coexist with multiple financial institutions. Before 1994, except for China Securities Regulatory Commission which was partly in charge of securities market regulation, People's Bank of China is the regulatory body for financial institutions and financial markets[107]. In 1998, China reformed its finance regulation system significantly, starting to build the separate regulatory regimes. People's Bank of China transformed its authority regarding securities market to China Securities Regulatory Commission, authority regarding insurance market to China Insurance Regulatory Commission, forming the regulatory pattern of ”separate financial business and separate financial regulators”. In 2003, China reformed financial system again by revising People’s Bank of China Law, and provided for the authority of People’s Bank of China which is to ensure the formulation and implementation of national monetary policy, establish and improve macro regulatory system in central bank, and maintain financial stability. At the same time, Banking Regulation Law was enacted, which clarified the authority of banking regulatory body to regulate banking institutions and their business.

In taxation system, State Council’s Decision on the Implementation of Revenue-sharing System of Fiscal System was enacted in 1993. In accordance with the principle of the combination of financial revenue and financial expenditure, taxs were uniformly classified into three categories: central tax, local tax and shared tax and the separate central and local taxation system particularly the separate collection agencies were established. Before the new Enterprise Income Tax Law adopted in 2007, according to estimates based on the survey of the sources of corporate income tax, an average actual tax rate of about 25% was imposed on domestically-funded enterprise, 10% higher than foreign capital enterprises with a tax rate of around 15%, therefore, there was a high voice for a unanimous tax rate for fair competition.[108].After the enactment of new “Enterprise Income Tax Law” in 2007, enterprise income tax rate is unanimously set as 25% to advance equal treatment and fair competition. In addition, China revised Tax Collection and Administration Law, to improve the tax administration system.

One milestone of legislation in this period is the enactment of Anti-monopoly Law. Before that, there were some rules prohibiting monopoly in Anti-unfair Competition Law (1993), Price Law (1997), Bidding Law (1999), and Telecommunications Regulation (2000) which was not sufficient with the development of socialist market economy international competition. [109]Although there were disperse rules in various laws and regulations, without a separate antimonopoly law, such rules could not combat effectively the administrative actions constraining competition and didn’t play their roles well due to the lack of an independent and authoritative enforcement agency and other reasons.[110] After decades, China enacted Anti-monopoly Law in 2007, dealing with the issues including monopoly agreement, Abuse of a Dominant Market Position, concentration of undertaking, abuse of administrative power to eliminate or restrict competition, and Investigation of the Suspected Monopoly Conducts, etc The enactment of Anti-monopoly Law plays an important role and has far-reaching importance in preventing and restraining monopolistic conducts, protecting fair competition in the market, enhancing economic efficiency, safeguarding the interests of consumers and social public interest, promoting the healthy development of the socialist market economy.

China has continued to focus on economic development and meanwhile put forward the notion of building a harmonious society according to principles of democracy and rule of law, fairness and justice, honesty and friendliness, dynamism, safety and good order, coexistence between human and the nature. [111] Therefore, China’s economic legal system has put more emphasis on promoting harmony within human beings and between nature and mankind. Moreover, the situation of unevenly income brought about by the rapid economic growth is also taken into account, thus, economic legislation also tried to balance the different and deal with social conflicts. Statistics shows that in the 12 years between 1995 and 2006, the number of labor disputes cases in China have grew by 13.5 times; particularly collective labor disputes also grew susbtantially, by 5.4 times. [112]However, because emphasis was put onthe speed of economic growth, social legislation in China has been tardiest in recent two decades. [113]Since the notion of constructing socialist harmonious society, China has particularly reinforced the legislation in labor relations and social security, such as Labor Contract Law (2007), Law on Employment Promotion (2007), Law on Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration(2007), Regulations on Paid Annual Leave of Workers (2007), Regulations on Labor Contact Law Enforcement(2008), etc. These laws and regulations provide rules to solve labor disputes effectively. After the enforcement of Labor Contract Law, in 2008, labor dispute cases submitted to arbitration rose by more than 98% compared with those in 2007, involving 1,214,000 workers. [114]In 2008, courts at all levels received as many as 286,000 labor cases, 93.93% more than those in 2007.[115]

Alongside the development of market economy, China doesn’t relax its efforts in environmental protection and has enacted a number of environmental laws and regulations, such as “Law on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution”(amended twice in 1995, 2000 respectively), “Law on Prevention of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste” (adopted in 1995, amended in 2004), “Law on Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution" (1996), "Law on Anti-desertification" (2001), "Law on Environmental Impact Assessment" (2002), "Law on Cleaner Production Promotion" (2002), "Law on Water Pollution Prevention and Control " (amended in 2008), etc, and has formed a relatively comprehensive legal system for environmental protection. Under the guidance of scientific outlook on development, China is to further balance the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and strive to build an environment-friendly society with high ecological civilization. [116]

For the past 60 years, despite all the ups and downs, China’s legal system construction has an overall positive trend, towards progress and prosperity which has proved true by the sixty-year-history.

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[1] Wang Jiafu, Xie Huaishi, etc, Contract Law, China Social Science Press, 1986, p.8.

[2] See, the Instruction of the Central Committee of CPC Regarding the Repeal of "Complete Book of Six Codes" of The Kuomintang and the Establishment of Judicial Principle in the Liberated Areas.

[3] Zhang Youyu(ed.), the Forty Years of Legal Studies in China, Shanghai People’s Press,1989,p. 327.

[4] Wang Jiafu(ed.), Economic Law, China Economy Press, 1988, p.25.

[5] Wu Jialin(ed.), Constitution Law, Qunzhong Press,1983, p 92.

[6] The Common Program of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, article 26.

[7] The Constitution of PRC of 1954, article 5.

[8] Zhang Zhuoyuan, Leap from Century Weakness to Economic Power, Guangmin Daily, Aug 27, 2009, p.11.

[9] Mutual assistance groups means the mutual assistance of farmers who owned the means of production; elementary rural cooperatives means the unified operation of agriculture with private ownership of means of production; and advanced rural cooperatives means the unified operation of agriculture with public ownership of means of production. See, http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2003-01/20/content_697957.htm.

[10] The Constitution of 1975, article 7.

[11] The combination of politics and society means the combination of political power in the town level and the economic organizations.

[12] See, Wang Zhaoguo’ s speech in the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People’s Congress (2007) on “The Explanation on the Draft of the Property Law of the PRC”.

[13] The Common Program of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, article 28.

[14] Wang Jiafu, Xie Huaishi, etc, Contract Law, China Social Science Press, 1986, pp. 142-146.

[15] Wang Jiafu, Xie Huaishi, etc, Contract Law, China Social Science Press, 1986, p.146.

[16] Xie Huaishi, Law of Negotiable Bills of Exchange, Law Press, 1990, p. 27.

[17] See the Criminal Law of the PRC of 1979 article 117, 118. The Criminal Law of 1997 repeals the articles 117 and 118 in the Law of 1979.

[18] See, Liang Huixing, Thoughts on the Making of Civil Law Code, Modern Law Magazine,Vol. 2, 2001.

[19] Constitution of the PRC of 1954, article 8.

[20] Constitution of the PRC of 1954, article 9.

[21] Li Shunde, the Fundamental of Intellectual Property Law, Intellectual Property Press, 2005, p.69.

[22] Li Mingde(ed.), Intellectual Property Law, Social Science Academic Press, 2007, p.64.

[23] The Department of Finance of Beijing Economy College, Reform of the Taxation System in China, Tianjin People’s Press, 1985, p.7.

[24] The Department of Finance of Beijing Economy College, Reform of the Taxation System in China, Tianjin People’s Press, 1985, p.35.

[25] The Department of Finance of Beijing Economy College, Reform of the Taxation System in China, Tianjin People’s Press, 1985, pp.51-53.

[26] Publilc debt in kind meant the loan and interest ot the public debt was calculated based on physicals.

[27] See Zhou Enlai’s speech in the 4th National People’s Congress(1975) on Government Work Report.

[28] Chen Su(ed.), the 60 Years of Legal Studies in China, China Social Science Press, 2009, pp.26-32.

[29] Selected Work of Deng Xiaoping, Vol 2, People’s Press, 1994, p.146.

[30] Zhang Youyu(ed.), The 40 Years of Legal Studies in China, Shanghai People’s Press, 1989, p.90.

[31] See, the Resolution of the 3rd Session of the 11th Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party.

[32] See, Jiang Zemin, “Accelerate Reform and Opening up and Modernization and Make More Achievement in the Socialist Cause with Chinese Characteristic.”

[33] “Contract system with remuneration linked to output” was a production form in Chinese rural collective economy with the feature that the individuals or families contracted for the use of land or other means of production and enjoyed the autonomy of operation and management.

[34] Li Yining, Socialist Political Economics, Commercial Press, 1986,p.45.

[35] Law on Chinese-foreign Equity Joint Ventures, article 1.

[36] Wang Jiafu(ed.), Understanding Economic Law, China Finance and Economy Press, 1988, p.605.

[37] Wang Jiafu(ed.), Understanding Economic Law, China Finance and Economy Press, 1988, pp.637-638.

[38] “Farmer’s Production Team” was the basic unit of rural production during the period of people’s communes.

[39] See, Luo Hanping, The History of People’s Communes in Rural China, Fujian People’s Press, 2003, pp.387-400.

[40] See article 8, 95 of the Constitution of 1982 before its Amendment.

[41] See, Luo Hanping, The History of People’s Communes in Rural China, Fujian People’s Press, 2003, p.413.

[42] See, the Amendment of the Constitution in 1993.

[43] Li Chenggui, China’s Agriculture Policy: Theory Framework and Analysis of Application, Social Science Academic Press, 1999, p.3.

[44] Wang Cunxue, Luo Yousheng, the Fundamental Legal Issues of Chinese Rural Economy, Law Press, 1998, p. 11.

[45] See Lv Dong’s Speech in the First Session of the 7th National People’s Congress on the Explanation of the Draft Law of Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People.

[46] “Eating from the Same Pot” was a metaphor of the extreme egalitarianism existing in Chinese income system which meant that the people’s income were not decided by the operation of enterprises or the performance of workers, which was similar to the phenomena that each person shared the same amount of food from the same pot.

[47] Wang Jiafu (ed.), Economic Law, China Economy Press, 1988, pp.34-36.

[48] Article 11, Constitution of 1982.

[49] According to the statistics, in 1988, there were more than 90,000 private enterprises with employees of about 1,640,000, see the report on the first amendment of the Constitution, the Daily of Prosecution, April 12, 2008.

[50] The Provisional Regulation on Private Enterprises, article 1.

[51] For example, in December 23, 2002, the draft of the Civil Law Code was submitted to the Standing Committee of the NPC for deliberation. There were nine chapters in this draft, namely, General Principle, Property Law, Contract Law, Personal Right Law, Marriage Law, Adoption Law, Inheritance Law, Torts Liabilities Law, Law Application Law for in Foreign-related Civil Activities.

[52] Liang Huixing, the Fundamentals of Civil Law, Law Press, 1996, p.19.

[53] Liang Huixing, Civil Law, Sichuan People’s Press, 1998, p.10.

[54] The Constitution of 1982, article 10.

[55] Liang Huixing(ed.) Studies on Chinese Property Law, Law Press, 1998, p.599.

[56] The article 1 of the Provisional Regulation on the Grant and Transfer of the Use Right of State Land.

[57] Wang Liming, Cui Jianyuan, Contract Law: General Provisions, China University of Political Science and Law Press, 1996, pp.94-95

[58] Wang Jiafu(ed.), Understanding Economic Law, China Finance and Economy Press, 1988, p.731.

[59] See, Zhou Yousu(ed.), Securities Law, Law Press, 2007, pp.12-13.

[60] Li Shunde, The Fundamental of Intellectual Property Law, Intellectual Property Press, 2005, p. 69.

[61] See the table of the trademark application and registration in the official website of the Chinese Trademark Bureau, http://sbj.saic.gov.cn/tjxx/tjxx.asp.

[62] Xiong Zhiyun, Trademark Documents and Management, Studies on Documentation, Vol. 1, 1998.

[63] Li Mingde(ed.), Intellectual Property Law, Social Science Academic Press, 2007, pp. 511,518,532,538.

[64] Ma Xiongcong, Cai Shouqiu, The General Introduction of Chinese Environment Law, Xueyuan Press, 1990, pp. 42-43.

[65] Li Henyuan, Chang Jiwen: the Current Situation, Problems and the Future: the 30 years of Chinese Environment Law, in Rule of Law of Environment in China(2007), Law Press, 2008, pp. 12-13.

[66] See Jiang Zemin: “Accelerate reform and opening-up and and modernization and make more achievement in the Socialist Cause Chinese Characteristics”.

[67] Amendments to the Constitution in 1993, article 7.

[68] By March 2008, China has 229 current effective laws totally, nearly 600 administrative regulations, more than 7,000 local regulations (see Wu Bangguo, "Standing Committee Work Report" in the First Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress),in which the economic laws and regulations account for a large proportion.

[69] For example, "the CPC Central Committee’s Decision on the Establishment of a Socialist Market Economic System " (1993) pointed out that great importance should be attached to the legal system,……and those laws and regulations which are incompatible with the establishment of a socialist market should be abolished or modified.

[70] For example, China in 2005,published the whole version of the "Property Law (Draft)", from July 10 to August 20, the citizens expressed 11543 views through the network or letters; the Standing Committees in 26 provinces (autonomous regions, cities of provincial level) and 15 large cities, 47 governmental agencies, 16 large companies, 22 legal teaching and research institutions also expressed their views on the draft. See the NPC Law Committee, "on the Report on the Revision of " Property Law (Draft) " (2005).

[71] See the "Standing Committee Work Report" by Li Peng in the the fourth Session of Ninth National People's Congress (2001).

[72] By the end of 2001, in the process of law changing, China formulated,revised and repealed about pieces of laws .See, http:// news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2001-12/28/content_216380.htm.

[73] Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Law Research Group," The Theory and Policy Proposals of Building a Socialist Market Economy Legal System ",in "Chinese Journal of Law" , Vol. 6, 1993.

[74] See the Reseach Group in the Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,"The General Thinking on the Making of Property Law", "Chinese Journal of Law" Vol 3, 1995.

[75] See, "Suggested Draft of Property Law of China", edited by Liang Huixing, Social Science Academic Press, 2000; "Draft of Property Law of China and Explanation" , edited y Wang Liming, China Legal Press, 2001.

[76] Cui JianYuan(ed.),Contract Law, Law Press, 2003, p. 10.

[77] "Chinese Journal of Law" is China's most authoritative journal of Law, Someone has done a statistics of the citations in papers on civil law published in the "Chinese Journal of Law" in the thirty years of 1978-2007, which to a certain extent, reflects the changes of Chinese legal research in learning foreign theories and experience. In the civil law papers on "Chinese Journal of Law" during 1978-1986, a total of 127 citations were the works of Marx and Engels, 35 ones were the works of Lenin, 13 ones were the Soviet Union literature, 4 ones were the Yugoslav, 11 ones were Anglo-American law literature, 6 were German literature, 6 were French literature, 4 were Japanese literature, 14 were the literature of China before 1949 and Chinese Taiwan Region, 4 were Roman literature; In the papers published in 1987-1999: 468, China before 1949 and Taiwan Region, 296, Anglo-American law,214, Japan, 64, Germany, 35, works of Marx and Engels, 30, Roman Law, 20, France, 27, Soviet Union; in 2000-2007, 595, China before 1949 and Taiwan Region, 585, Germany, 290, Anglo-American law, 225, Roman Law,190, Japan, 59, France, 113 from other countries (including Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Argentina, etc.).See, Chang Peng’ao,“the 3o Years of Studies on the Civil Law Papers Published in ‘the Chinese Journal of Law’" ,"The Chinese Journal of Law" ,Vol. 3, 2008.

[78] See, State Administration of Industrial and Commerce:” Statistical Analysis: the report of main development of the national economic organizations in the first quarter of 2009(May 11, 2009).

[79] TheAmendments to the Constitution in 1999, article 16

[80] The Amendments to the Constitution in 2004, article 21.

[81] See the CPC Central Committee’s Decision on Improving Market Economy System.

[82] See, State Administration of Industrial and Commerce: “Statistical Analysis: the report of main development of the national economic organizations in the first quarter of 2009”(May 11, 2009).

[83] See Zhao Xudong,Business and Company Law, Law Press, 2003, pp. 61-65.

[84]. See Shi Jichun(ed.),Economic Law, China Renmin University Press, 2005, p. 162.

[85] For example, transforming state-owned enterprises into companies in order to establish a modern enterprise system is the direction of state-owned enterprise reform after 1992 (See 1993, "the CPC Central Committee’s Decision on the Establishment of a Socialist Market Economic System "). If state-owned enterprises were reorganized into corporations, the Company Law will apply.

[86] For example, the Company Law in 2005 and Partnership Enterprise Law in 2007 were modified significantly respectively.

[87]As of the end of March 2009, there are 125,500 stock corporations, 6,336,700 limited liability companies and 123,100 partnership enterprises, 1,078,900 individual wholly-owned enterprises and 139,100 farmers’s cooperatives. See, State Administration of Industrial and Commerce: “Statistical Analysis: the report of main development of the national economic organizations in the first quarter of 2009”(May 11, 2009).

[88] See, Wang Baohu, Cui Qiuzhi, China's Company Law Theory, Social Science Academic Press, 2000, pp.10-15. In fact, the word of "company" at that time did exist, but had no strict legal definitions; often it was used to name those commercial enterprises that could not be called "factories”, such as department stores, public transport companies.

[89] See the NPC Law Committee, the Report on the Result of Deliberation on the Draft Company Law (December 20, 1993).

[90] See Cao Kangtai, the Explaination on the draft of the revision of Company Law in the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (February 25, 2005).

[91] Cui Jianyuan(ed.), Contract Law, Law Press, 2003, p. 10.

[92] Contract Law, Article 428.

[93] See the Part of Speicific Provisions in the Contract Law.

[94] Cui Jianyuan(ed.), Contract Law, Law Press, 2003,pp. 10-11.

[95] Han Shiyuan,Contract Law, Law Press, 2008, p.27.

[96] The Amendments to the Constitution in 2004, article 24.

[97] Wang Zhaoguo, the Explanation on The Property Law (Draft) in the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (2007).

[98] Property Law,Article 3, 4.

[99] Sun Xianzhong, Chinese Property Law, Law Press, 2009, pp. 15-17.

[100] See Cao Zhongqiang, Huang Hui, China Trademark Report (Vol. IV), CITIC Press, 2005, p.300.

[101] See See the table of the trademark appication and registration in the official website of the Chinese Trademark Bureau, http://sbj.saic.gov.cn/tjxx/tjxx.asp..

[102] See the website of National Intellectual Property Bureau, http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/tjxx.

[103] National Council Information Office, "New Progress in China's Intellectual Property (White Paper)" (2005).

[104] Intellectual Property Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(ed.), China's IPR Protection System Reform, Intellectual Property Press, 2008, pp. 227-228.

[105] For example, Securities Lawin 2005, Insurance Law in 2002, 2009, the People's Bank Law in 2003, Commercial Bank Law in 2003, were made substantial changes.

[106] Chen Jie: Securities Law,Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006, p. 25.

[107] Hubin, Quan Xianyin Quan(ed.): “Chinese Financial Law Report 2009”, Social Science Academic Press, 2009.p. 5.

[108] Jin Renqing: Explaination on The Enterprise Income Tax Law (Draft) in the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress, March 8, 2007.

[109] Cao Kangtai: Explaination on Anti -monopoly Law(draft) in the Standing Committee of Tenth National People's Congress, June 24, 2006.

[110] See Wang Xiaoye: "Competition Law", Social Science Academic Press, 2007, pp.195-197.

[111] See, the Decision on Establishing a Socialist Harmonious Society of the CPC Central Committee (2006).

[112] Interpretation on the Labor Contract Law from the Chairman of the Law Committee of the National People’s Congress, http://www.xinhuanet.com/zhibo/20070723/wz.htm.

[113] Shi Tanjing, Social Law, China's Labor and Social Security Press, 2007, p. 35.

[114] Department of Human Resources and Social Security, National Bureau of Statistics, " Statistical Bulletin of the Development of Human Resources and Social Security in 2008."

[115] Wang Shengjun,Supreme People's Court Work Report 2008.

[116] See Cai Shouqiu, Wang Huanhuan: “The Importance and Urgency of Strengthening Environmental Law Cultural Building”, in Rule of Law of Environment in China (2007), Law Press, 2008, pp. 27-33.