Editor's Note:
Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics and an important feature of Chinese modernization. In the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core views the general trend, takes the direction and seeks the overall situation, and solidly promotes common prosperity.
As a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Chairman of the National Bar Association, and a partner of Guohao Law Firm, Lv Hongbing has a profound and unique understanding of the rule of law in the economic field. In recent years, Lv Hongbing has focused his attention on the construction of the legal system to promote common prosperity. He has made many in-depth investigations at the grass-roots level, changed several drafts, and constantly improved, and finally completed a 20000 word research report.
Since then, he has refined the research report into 1500 words of proposals, discussed the construction of the rule of law system for common prosperity from the perspectives of policy, law and practice, and from all levels of the market, government and rural areas, and proposed that the legislation to adhere to the basic socialist economic system should be further improved, and the legal norms to stimulate the vitality of business entities should be improved It is suggested to strengthen the construction of the legal system related to market operation and market regulation, and accelerate the improvement of the legal system to promote the common prosperity of farmers and rural areas.
As a result, the dialogue with Lu Hongbing, a member of the committee, centered on the legal system of "solid promotion of common prosperity".
Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics
Reporter: How do you understand the importance and urgency of promoting the construction of the legal system of common prosperity? Please talk about the relationship between comprehensive rule of law and common prosperity.
Lv Hongbing: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that "Chinese style modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all people. Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and it is also a long-term historical process. We persist in taking the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and end result of the modernization drive, strive to safeguard and promote social fairness and justice, strive to promote the common prosperity of all people, and resolutely prevent polarization. "
"If we establish good laws in the world, the world will govern; if we establish good laws in one country, the country will govern." We have embarked on a new journey to comprehensively build a modern socialist country and march towards the second centennial goal. Based on the new stage of development, we will implement new development concepts, build new development patterns, promote high-quality development, and meet the people's demands for democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice The growing requirements for security and environment, improving people's quality of life and promoting common prosperity, all put forward new and higher requirements for the construction of the rule of law. To build a socialist system of rule of law with Chinese characteristics, we must comply with the needs of cause development, adhere to the concept of system, and comprehensively promote it.
The laws and regulations reflecting the common development of China's public ownership and diversified ownership economy should be further revised and improved
Reporter: At present, what are the shortcomings of the legal system to promote common prosperity?
Lv Hongbing: General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "to promote common prosperity in a down-to-earth way, we must adhere to the socialist economic system." Both the Constitution and the Civil Code clearly stipulate the basic socialist economic system, which is the economic basis and material prerequisite for promoting common prosperity, as well as the institutional basis and legal guarantee for promoting common prosperity.
At present, the legal norms at the level of "laws and regulations" reflect the common development of China's public ownership and diversified ownership economies. From the perspective of the subject, in the state-owned economy, there are industrial enterprises law owned by the whole people, and enterprise state-owned assets law; In terms of collective economy, there are regulations on rural collectively owned enterprises, township enterprise law, and regulations on urban collectively owned enterprises; In the non-public economy, there are regulations on individual businesses and laws on individual proprietorships; In mixed economy, there are company law and partnership law.
The above laws and regulations should be further revised and comprehensively improved. First, because of "disrepair", many of the above laws and regulations have been formulated for a long time, such as the Law on Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People, which was deliberated and adopted at the first meeting of the Seventh National People's Congress on April 13, 1988. Although it was partially revised on August 27, 2009, it has been 13 years so far. Second, we need to coordinate and unify, and we need to pick up the leftovers and fill the gaps. For example, the Civil Code mentioned "rural collective economic organizations" and "urban and rural cooperative economic organizations", which are two core subjects to promote rural prosperity. Obviously, this legislation is a top priority. In addition, the special section of the Civil Code stipulates the legal status of "two households". Therefore, while accelerating the revision of the regulations on individual businesses, special provisions on rural contract operators should be introduced as soon as possible, and should be coordinated and matched with the relevant provisions of the Rural Land Contract Law. Third, we should focus on the key points and lead by norms. State owned enterprises are "the eldest son of the Republic". General Secretary Xi Jinping also said that "private enterprises and private entrepreneurs are our own people". The "eldest son" has been protected by the law of state-owned assets of enterprises, and the "own person" should also be protected by the legislation of private enterprises. The policy of ensuring private enterprises to use resource elements equally according to law, participate in competition openly, fairly and fairly, and be equally protected by law should be legalized.
We note that the legislative plan of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress has made it clear that the revision of the Law on State owned Assets of Enterprises, the formulation of the Organic Law on Rural Collective Economy and the Law on the Promotion of Private Economy have also been included in the agenda. We look forward to the early completion and effective implementation of these legislative amendment projects.
Land system is an important part of China's basic economic system. China has successively promulgated and implemented laws on land such as the Land Management Law, the Urban Real Estate Management Law, and the Rural Land Contract Law, as well as laws on natural resources such as the Mineral Resources Law, the Forest Law, the Grassland Law, and the Water Law. "Labor is the father of wealth, and land is the mother of wealth". Taking the land management law as an example, the emphasis is on "management", but at the same time, in order to better promote development, under the premise of "ownership" and "protection", we should highlight "utilization" and "development", and make efforts and articles on "use" and "income" based on the civil code, so as to promote the "mother of wealth" to better benefit the people. We can consider formulating a unified land basic law, and take it as the parent law to form a land legal system and even a land code.
Further strengthen the reform and improvement of the legal system related to secondary distribution
Reporter: To prevent polarization, government regulation is very important. Then, how to reform and improve the legal system related to secondary distribution?
Lv Hongbing: General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that we should "correctly handle the relationship between efficiency and fairness, and build a basic institutional arrangement for the coordination of primary distribution, redistribution, and tertiary distribution." Experts pointed out that primary distribution is the basis and secondary distribution is the key. The secondary distribution includes tax, social security and transfer payment.
First, we should further improve the tax legal system.
To improve the tax system, direct tax reform is the top priority. For example, the personal income tax rate should be further reduced. The tax rate is too high, and the transfer of individual income tax by high-income groups leads to the reduction of the tax base and the reduction of the total tax revenue. For another example, real estate tax, inheritance tax and gift tax should be levied in accordance with the law. In addition, at present, there are many provisions on tax preference in China, which are classified by type and industry, and vary in length and object depending on time and place. Therefore, a unified "tax preference law" should be issued.
Second, we should further improve the legal system of social security.
In terms of social insurance, it is worth paying attention to the improvement of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly. According to the new requirements of the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening the Work for the Elderly in the New Era, and in combination with the new provisions of the Civil Code on the guardianship system, the right of residence system, and the marriage and family inheritance system, more targeted and operational provisions should be made on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly. In terms of social assistance, the Interim Measures for Social Assistance should be expanded and improved according to the Opinions on Reforming and Improving the Social Assistance System issued by the Office of the Central Committee of the People's Republic of China in April 2020, and the Social Assistance Law should be formulated. In terms of social welfare, the law on the protection of the disabled, the law on the protection of minors and the law on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly constitute the core content of China's social welfare system. In terms of social preferential treatment, the Military Service Law and the Law on Protection of Retired Servicemen have been implemented.
It should be said that today, in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the connotation of China's social security has been greatly enriched, far beyond the scope of the traditional sense. In terms of housing security, public health and other aspects, the same efforts should be made to let the people have more sense of gain, happiness and security.
In terms of housing security, we should adhere to the orientation of "housing is for living, not for speculation", and consider formulating the "Basic Law on Housing Security" as soon as possible. In terms of public health, the "Basic Law of Public Health" can be formulated on the basis of laws and regulations such as the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the Frontier Health Quarantine Law, and the Emergency Regulations for Sudden Public Health Events, to meet the needs of building a strong public health service system. In terms of public education, the Compulsory Education Law, the Higher Education Law and the Vocational Education Law have all been implemented. We should speed up the equalization of basic public education and unify the formulation of the "Basic Law of Public Education". In terms of public culture, the theme of safeguarding the cultural rights and interests of the people should be highlighted, and a unified "Basic Law on Public Culture" should be formulated. In terms of public legal services, the "Basic Law on Public Legal Services" should be promulgated.
Third, accelerate the legislation of transfer payment system.
At present, the legal hierarchy of financial transfer payment is not high. It is suggested to formulate the "transfer payment law" to clarify the purpose, principle, method and fund use of transfer payment; Emphasize that the transfer payment must be synchronized with the budget of governments at all levels and implement budget management; Stipulate the disclosure system of relevant projects and accept social supervision; Establish a special central transfer payment management organization.
Adhering to the principle of distribution according to work and coexistence of multiple distribution methods are the basic way to promote common prosperity in a down-to-earth way
Reporter: You said that secondary distribution is the key and primary distribution is the foundation. What is the basic way to promote common prosperity? How about the construction of the relevant legal system in China?
Lv Hongbing: Adhering to the principle of distribution according to work, coexistence of multiple distribution modes, and improving the mechanism of market determined remuneration for various factors of production are the basic ways to solidly promote common prosperity.
"Labor is the father of wealth", which should form a good social custom that everyone loves labor and gets rich by labor. China has issued labor law, employment promotion law and vocational education law, and should further strengthen the "vocational education and training" system. In the process of protecting the rights and interests of workers, especially the distribution of rights and interests according to work, it is particularly critical to improve the wage decision and growth mechanism. Therefore, the trade union law should be implemented, and relevant regulations on "collective wage negotiation" and "minimum wage" should be formulated in a timely manner to consolidate the legal basis for the common prosperity of all people.
Widening the channels for increasing income such as dividends and bonuses of residents and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors are the proper meanings of the topic of "coexistence of multiple distribution methods". In this regard, we should focus on implementing the Securities Law, especially the provisions on "investor protection", and earnestly safeguard the rights and interests of investors, especially small and medium-sized investors. The newly issued "New National Nine Rules" for the capital market also further emphasized this point.
Multi channel increase of value-added income and asset income shared by farmers' collectives and individuals is an important part of promoting common prosperity of farmers. It is suggested to combine the formulation of the "Land Basic Law" and the improvement of the land legal system, incorporate the reform of collective profit-making construction land, rural contracted land and homestead into the overall planning, and take this as the core path to design and realize the plan of doubling farmers' property income.
Accelerate the establishment of the basic legal system related to the three distributions
Reporter: The development of philanthropy is also an important aspect of promoting common prosperity. What else needs to be done to build the legal system in this area?
Lv Hongbing: Indeed, we should accelerate the establishment of the basic legal system related to the three distributions. Some experts pointed out that the primary distribution stresses efficiency and fairness, the secondary distribution stresses fairness and efficiency, and the tertiary distribution stresses voluntariness and morality. That is to say, if the primary distribution is the basis and the secondary distribution is the key, then the tertiary distribution is the supporting and auxiliary supplement.
At present, the Charity Law, the Public Welfare Donation Law and the Foundation Management Regulations have been implemented. China's Civil Code specifically stipulates the system of "non-profit legal person", as well as "social organizations", "foundations" and "social service institutions". It is suggested to improve the foundation management regulations according to the civil code, revise them into "foundation regulations" to promote development, and simultaneously formulate "social organization regulations" and "social service agency regulations"; Or include public institutions as legal persons and formulate a unified "non-profit legal person law". Our civil code stipulates the social responsibility of profit making legal persons, and the company law stipulates the social responsibility with special articles. On this basis, special "regulations on corporate social responsibility" can be formulated. The development of philanthropy requires the vigorous development of voluntary service, and the voluntary service regulations have been implemented since December 1, 2017. It is suggested to formulate a unified "voluntary service law".
Although it is easy to understand the concept of "three distributions depend on voluntariness", its connotation is not comprehensive. From the perspective of international experience, if there is no inheritance tax, gift tax and other taxes, it is difficult to make the third distribution bigger, stronger and better just by propaganda and moral inspiration. Therefore, it is suggested to levy inheritance tax and gift tax, and give tax preference to charities and other social public welfare undertakings through improving the income tax law, so as to truly promote the healthy and smooth development of the three distributions. (Reporter Xu Yanhong)
