China will this year take "decisive steps" toward establishing a socialistic legal system with Chinese characteristics, top legislator Wu Bangguo said Monday.

The National People's Congress (NPC), or the top legislative body, will debate and adopt new laws that form the backbone of the legal system, and conduct a systematic examination of existing laws to revise or eliminate outdated or unsuitable articles , said Wu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

The NPC will at least formulate seven laws on social security, social welfare, tort liability and others, and will revise seven laws on state compensation, protecting state secrets and others, Wu said.

The CPC Central Committee has clearly set the goal of establishing a legal system of socialism with Chinese characteristics by 2010.

As of 2008, China has "basically" established the system with the Constitution as its core, seven types of laws as its backbone and three levels of laws, administrative regulations and local ordinances, Wu said.

He said the NPC must improve the quality of legislation in accordance with the guiding principles of the 17th National Congress of Communist Party of China (CPC).

Qi qi, president of the Zhejiang Provincial Higher People's Court and an NPC deputy, hailed the NPC's efforts to formulate and revise laws.

"There used to be a few administrative regulations that contradict each other. That was because different authorities were considering too much for their own interests, which caused wide criticism from the public," Qi said.

The Food Safety Law, which was adopted days before the NPC session, is an example of efforts to address this issue, he added.

China will never copy the political system of Western countries, said Wu, who discussed the "essential differences" between the people's congress, the backbone of the political system of China, and the political system of Western capitalist countries.

He called on lawmakers to bear in mind the country's legal system is a socialist one with Chinese characteristics, saying the Western model cannot be copied mechanically.

"Some of the laws in the legal systems of other countries are incompatible with the situation and conditions in China so we will not formulate such laws. Some laws that are not part of the legal systems of other countries but are nevertheless a practical necessity for China need to be promptly enacted," Wu said.

There are 231 laws currently in effect in China, up from 220-strong in 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2009)