China adopts revised civil servant law to facilitate civil service reform

China's top legislature on Saturday voted to adopt the revised civil servant law as part of the country's efforts to promote its civil service reform.

[Photo:VCG]

Lawmakers approved the revision at the end of a week-long bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

The civil servants' reward and punishment systems have been improved in the new law, an official with the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has said.

The new law states that civil servants who perform well in certain circumstances should be rewarded and those who fail in their performance appraisals could face demotion.

Supervision over civil servants has been reinforced in the revision, according to the official.

The revised law states that a civil servants' failure to fulfill their obligations and duties will be a violation of disciplines.

Civil servants must not work as leaders of industry regulators or administrative departments in charge of supervising businesses run by their own spouses, children or spouses of their children, according to the new law.

The law also improved the regulations regarding civil servants' positions and ranks as well as civil servant recruiting.

The revision of the civil servant law, which first took effect in 2006, was launched in March 2017.

Nearly 30,000 people posted more than 56,000 opinions concerning the draft revision of the civil servant law during a previous public opinion collection on the website of the NPC Standing Committee, the official said.

The revised law will come into effect on June 1, 2019, as the institutional reform in local governments across the country will be generally wrapped up at the end of March 2019.