Recently, the State Council has issued the Decision on Revising the Regulations on Procedures for the Formulation of Administrative Regulations and the Decision on Revising the Regulations on Procedures for the Formulation of Rules (collectively as the "Decisions"), with effect from May 1, 2018.
The Decisions establish the public consultation system, stating that when the work to draft administrative regulations or rules is ongoing, the draft version of administrative regulations or rules as well as explanations for the drafting work shall be published for public consultation, or the draft for review or the revised draft together with explanations thereof shall be released to solicit opinions from the general public during the review period, and adding that the public consultation shall generally last for 30 days at least. Additionally, the Decisions introduce the post-legislation evaluation regime, meaning that the departments in charge of the drafting work and the authorities for legislative affairs may, after the legislation process, organize the evaluation of administrative regulations, rules or particular provisions thereof. Furthermore, the Decisions also optimize the system of seeking, expounding and proving legislative programs, provides for the system of entrusting third parties to draw up legislations, establishes the regime of expounding, proving and seeking advisory opinions for major benefit adjustments proposed, and further refines the procedures to interpret and abolish legislations.