Editor’s Note: The following presented as part of CRE’s occasional series of articles discussing regulatory review processes around the world. See also, The Need for Centralized Regulatory Review in Brazil and Centralized Regulatory Review in the UK.
From: The Regulatory Review | Penn Program on Regulation
China’s central government, the State Council, recently mandated a 30-day public notice-and-comment process for most government rulemakings and institutionalized other mechanisms that increase public participation and transparency in the rulemaking process throughout the country more generally.
These new mechanisms—referred to collectively as the “Procedures”—were accomplished through amendments to two sets of State Council procedures that apply, respectively, to national administrative regulations (xingzheng fagui) issued by the State Council and to lower-level rules(guizhang) issued by the State Council departments and by local governments and their departments. The Procedures effectuate calls by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council to make rulemaking better reflect the will of the people and ensure higher quality regulation. Unexpectedly, the updates also codified requirements for CCP consultation and approval during the rulemaking process.