1st Ld: China's first charity bill submitted to national legislature

The draft of charity law, the first bill to regulate charity activities, was submitted to China's national legislature on Wednesday, trying to recruit help from good Samaritans in realizing the 2020 poverty alleviation target.

China expects the new law to encourage more ordinary citizens, enterprises and social organizations to engage in charity programs, said Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, when elaborating the draft law to NPC deputies at the NPC annual session.

China plans to lift out of poverty all rural residents who fall below the current poverty line by 2020. The number stood at about 70 million at the end of 2015, under a standard of per capita net income of 2,800 yuan (430 U.S. dollars) a year.

"Charitable programs are indispensable for the fight against poverty. Formulating a charity law ... helps nongovernmental sources work together in taking targeted measures to alleviate and eliminate poverty and makes contributions to achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Li said.

The bill, consisting of 12 chapters and 112 articles, defines charity activities and charity organizations and regulate under what criteria charity organizations should be founded and how they should be registered.

It also addresses the internal management of charity organizations, the obligation of disclosing information, fund-raising and policies to encourage charity donations, such as tax deduction.

The bill has gone through two readings at the bi-monthly sessions of the NPC Standing Committee. Endi