Decree of the State Council of the People"s Republic of China

    No. 431

    Regulations on Letters and Visits, adopted at the 76th Executive Meeting of the State Council on January 5, 2005, are hereby promulgated and shall be effective as of May 1, 2005.

    Premier Wen Jiabao
January 10, 2005

    Regulations on Letters and Visits

    (Adopted at the 76th Executive Meeting of the State Council on January 5, 2005, promulgated by Decree No. 431 of the State Council of the People"s Republic of China on January 10, and effective as of May 1, 2005)

    Chapter I General Provisions

    Article 1 These Regulations are formulated for the purposes of enhancing relations between the people"s governments at all levels and the people, protecting the lawful rights and interests of letter-writers and visitors, and maintaining a good order in letter-writing and visiting.

    Article 2 The term "letters and visits" in these Regulations means that citizens, legal persons or other organizations give information, make comments or suggestions or lodge complaints to the people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level through correspondence, E-mails, faxes, phone calls, visits, and so on, which are dealt with by the relevant administrative departments according to law.

    A citizen, legal person or any other organization that gives information, makes comments or suggestions or lodges complaints by such means as prescribed in the preceding paragraph is defined as a letter-writer or visitor.

    Article 3 The people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level shall effectively handle letters and visits by conscientiously dealing with letters, receiving visitors, heeding people"s comments, suggestions and complaints and accepting their supervision, so that the people"s interests are best served.

    The people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level shall keep free-flowing channels for letter-writers and visitors and provide convenience for the letter-writers or visitors who give information, make comments or suggestions, or lodge complaints by such means as prescribed in these Regulations.

    No organization or individual may retaliate against letter-writers or visitors.

    Article 4 The work regarding letters and visits shall be done under the leadership of the people"s governments at all levels and in adherence to the principles of territorial jurisdiction, responsibilities assumed at different levels, the department in charge being the department responsible and combination of the need to solve problems lawfully, timely and locally with persuasion.

    Article 5 The people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level shall make policy decisions in a scientific and democratic manner, perform their duties according to law and prevent contradictions and disputes at source from leading to letters and visits.

    Any people"s government at or above the county level shall establish a work pattern for letters and visits characterized by unified leadership, coordination among different departments, overall planning and all-round consideration, seeking both temporary and permanent solution, each assuming its own responsibilities and joining efforts with others for the common goal, and it shall resolve contradictions and disputes in a timely manner by holding joint meetings and setting up a mechanism for making investigation and coordination and handling letters and visits and a working system of supervision in this respect.

    Responsible persons of the people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level shall read letters for important issues and give written instructions on them, receive visitors for important issues, listen to reports on the work regarding letters and visits, and study and solve overriding problems in such work.

    Article 6 Any people"s government at or above the county level shall set up a department for letters and visits. The relevant department of the people"s government at or above the county level and the people"s government of the town or township shall, according to the principles of facilitating work and creating convenience for letter-writers and visitors, respectively assign a unit responsible for the work regarding letters and visits (hereinafter referred to as the unit for letters and visits) or individuals the specific reasonability for work in this field.

    The department for letters and visits of the people"s government at or above the county level is the administrative department of the people"s government at the corresponding level which is responsible for the work regarding letters and visits and performs the following duties:

    (1) to accept the letter-or-visit matter presented by a letter-writer or visitor, transmit it to another organ, or assign another organ to handle it;

    (2) to handle the letter-or-visit matter handed over by the people"s government at a higher level or at the corresponding level;

    (3) to coordinate efforts in handling important letter-or-visit matters;

    (4) to urge and examine the handling of letter-or-visit matters;

    (5) to study and analyze both letters and visits, conduct investigation and study and, in a timely manner, make suggestions on improving policies and work to the people"s government at the corresponding level; and

    (6) to provide guidance to other relevant departments of the people"s government at the corresponding level and the departments or units for letters and visits of the people"s governments at lower levels in their work regarding letters and visits.

    Article 7 The people"s governments at all levels shall establish and improve the responsibility system for letters and visits, and shall, in strict accordance with the provisions of the relevant laws, administrative regulations and these Regulations, investigate the individuals who are responsible for malfeasance or dereliction of duty committed in the work regarding letters and visits and circulate a notice of the matter within an appropriate scope.

    The people"s governments at all levels shall incorporate the achievements scored in the work regarding letters and visits into the performance assessment of public servants.

    Article 8 The relevant administrative organ or unit shall give rewards to the letter-writer or visitor who, by giving information or presenting comments or suggestions in its letter or visit, has made contributions to the national economic and social development, and to the improvement of the work of State organs and the protection of public interests.

    The relevant administrative organ shall give rewards to the unit or individual that has scored outstanding achievements in the work regarding letters and visits.

    Chapter II Channels for Letters and Visits

    Article 9 The people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level shall make known to the public such matters as the correspondence and E-mail addresses, telephone numbers for complaints, time and places for receiving letters and visitors, methods of inquiring about the progress and results of the letter-or-visit matters handled.

    The people"s governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people"s governments at or above the county level shall, at the places for receiving letters and visitors or at the websites, make known to the public the laws, regulations and rules, the procedures for handling letter-or-visit matters and other matters concerning provision of convenience to letter-writers and visitors.

    Article 10 The people"s governments at the level of a city divided into districts and those at the county level and their relevant departments and the people"s governments of towns or townships shall establish the system of reception day on which the responsible persons of administrative organs read letters and receive visitors, and coordinate efforts in handling letter-or-visit matters. Letter-writers and visitors can report letter-or-visit matters face to face to the responsible persons of the administrative organs at the publicized reception place on the publicized reception day.

    Responsible persons of the people"s government at or above the county level and of the relevant departments of the said government or the individuals designated by them may go to the places where the letter-writers or visitors live to talk to them face to face and exchange views with them with regard to the overriding problems they have reported.

    Article 11 The department for letters and visits of the State shall, by making full use of the existing network resources for governmental affairs information, establish a national information system for letters and visits, in order to provide convenience for letter-writers and visitors to present letter-or-visit matters and inquire about the handling of the letters and visits locally.

    The local people"s government at or above the county level shall, by making full use of the existing network resources for governmental affairs information, establish or designate the information system for letters and visits within its administrative areas and connect its information system for letters and visits with those of the people"s governments at higher levels, their relevant departments and the people"s governments at lower levels.

    Article 12 The department for letters and visits or any other relevant departments of the people"s government at or above the county level shall, in a timely manner, input the complaint lodged by a letter-writer or visitor into the information system for letters and visits. The letter-writer or visitor may, on the strength of the complaint acceptance certificate issued by the administrative organ, go to the department for letters and visits or the reception place of the relevant department of the local people"s government to inquire about the handling of the complaint. The specific measures and procedures therefor shall respectively be formulated by the people"s government of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government.

    Article 13 In light of the actual needs in the work regarding letters and visits, the people"s governments at the level of a city divided into districts and those at the county level may establish a working mechanism in which the government plays the leading role and all sectors of society take part and which facilitates rapid settlement of disputes.

    The departments and units for letters and visits shall organize the relevant public organizations, legal aid agencies, professionals, volunteers and others to joint efforts in handling complaints lodged by letter-writers and visitors in a lawful, timely and reasonable way through advice, education, consultation, mediation, hearing, or by other means.

    Chapter III Presenting Letter-or-visit Matters

    Article 14 Where a letter-writer or visitor gives information or makes comments or suggestions on the performance of duties by the following organizations or individuals, or is not satisfied with the performance of duties by the following organizations or individuals, it may present letter-or-visit matters to the relevant administrative organs:

    (1) administrative organs or their staff members;

    (2) organizations that are authorized by laws or regulations to perform the functions of administration of public affairs, or their staff members;

    (3) enterprises or institutions providing public service, or their staff members;

    (4) individuals in public organizations or other enterprises or institutions who are appointed or dispatched by administrative organs of the State; and

    (5) villagers" committees, residents" committees or their members.

    With regard to the complaints that shall be handled according to law through litigation, arbitration, administrative reconsideration or other statutory means, the letter-writer or visitor shall present them to the relevant organs according to the procedures as provided for by the relevant laws and administrative regulations.

    Article 15 With regard to a letter-or-visit matter that falls within the scope of the functions and powers of the people"s congresses at all levels, the standing committee of the people"s congress at or above the county level, the people"s court or the people"s procuratorate, the letter-writer or visitor shall present it to the people"s congress, its standing committee, people"s court or people"s procuratorate respectively and abide by the provisions of Articles 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of these Regulations.

    Article 16 Where a letter-writer or visitor intends to present a letter-or-visit matter through visit, it shall present the letter-or-visit matter to the organ at the corresponding level or the next higher level that, according to law, has the power to handle the letter-or-visit matter. If a letter-or-visit matter has been accepted or is in the process of being handled and the letter-writer or visitor, before the expiration of the time limit, presents the same letter-or-visit matter to the organ at the higher level of the organ that has accepted and is handling the letter-or-visit matter, the former shall not accept the letter-or-visit matter.

    Article 17 A letter-writer or visitor shall, in general, present a letter-or-visit matter through correspondence, E-mail, fax or any other written form. Where it lodges a complaint, it shall, in addition, state clearly its name (title), address, requests, the facts and reasons.

    With regard to the oral presentation of a complaint, the relevant organ shall record the name (title) and address of the letter-writer or visitor, its requests, the facts and reasons.

    Article 18 Where a letter-writer or visitor who intends to present a letter-or-visit matter through visit, it shall go to the reception place established or designated by the organ concerned.

    Where two or more letter-writers or visitors intend to present the same letter-or-visit matter through visit, they shall choose representatives, and the number of representatives shall not exceed five.

    Article 19 A letter-writer or visitor shall be objective in presenting letter-or-visit matters, the letter-or-visit matters presented shall be true to facts, and it shall be responsible for the truthfulness of the contents of the materials it provides. It shall not make up stories, distort facts, frame or bring a false charge against others.

    Article 20 Letter-writers and visitors shall, in the course of writing letters or making visits, abide by laws and regulations, shall not harm the interests of the State, society or the collective or infringe upon the lawful rights of other citizens, shall conscientiously maintain public order and the order in handling letters and visits, and shall not commit any of the following acts:

    (1) illegally assembling around offices of State organs or public places, encircling and attacking State organs, intercepting official vehicles, or jamming and obstructing traffic;

    (2) carrying dangerous articles or tools under control;

    (3) humiliating, beating up or threatening functionaries of State organs or illegally restricting other people"s freedom of the individual;

    (4) staying and making trouble at the reception places for letters and visits, or leaving the individuals who are unable to look after themselves at such places;

    (5) inciting, colluding with, coercing or enticing with money or things of value others to write letters or make visits, or manipulating from behind the scenes others into doing so, or taking advantage of letters and visits to accumulate wealth; or

    (6) committing other acts that disrupt public order or impair national or public security.

    Chapter IV Accepting Letter-or-visit Matters

    Article 21 The department for letters and visits of the people"s government at or above the county level shall, upon receiving a letter or visit, register the letter-or-visit matter presented and handle it on the merits of each case within 15 days in the following ways:

    (1) With regard to a letter-or-visit matter specified in Article 15 of these Regulations, notify the letter-writer or visitor that it presents such matter to the people"s congresses or its standing committee, people"s court or people"s procuratorate respectively; and reject the matter which has been or shall be handled according to law through litigation, arbitration, administrative reconsideration or any other statutory means, while notifying the letter-writer or visitor that it presents the matter to the organ concerned according to the procedures as provided for by the relevant laws or administrative regulations.

    (2) With regard to a letter-or-visit matter which shall be handled and decided on by the people"s government at the corresponding level or the department thereof according to their statutory functions and duties, transfer such matter to the administrative organ which has the power to handle it; or make timely suggestions and submit such matter to the people"s government at the corresponding level for decision in case of any important or urgent matter.

    (3) With regard to a letter-or-visit matter which involves an administrative organ at a lower level or its staff members, directly transfer such matter to the administrative organ which has the power to handle it according to the principles of territorial jurisdiction, responsibilities assumed at different levels, and the department in charge being the department responsible, and send a copy of the matter to the department or unit for letters and visits of the people"s government at the next lower level.

    The department for letters and visits of the people"s government at or above the county level shall notify such department or unit of the people"s government at the next lower level of the matter transferred regularly, and the department or unit for letters and visits of the people"s government at a lower level shall report to such department of the people"s government at the next higher level about the handling of the transferred matter regularly.

    (4) With regard to any important matter among the letter-or-visit matters transferred and feedback on the results of the handling of which is required, send it directly to the administrative organ which has the power to handle it, and ask the organ to feed back the results within the designated time limit for handling it and submit reports on the results of the handling.