China has built a preliminary administrative legal system which balances administrative efficiency and protection of citizen's rights, said Cao Kangtai, director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council on Monday.

The Seventh China-Germany Symposium on Law, jointly launched by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council and the German Ministry of Justice, was held here with the theme of "administrative enforcement and protection of citizen's rights".

Cao said that as of June last year, China had 48 laws and 72 regulations, which formed a basic administrative legal system.

For example, China's law on tax collection management requires citizens who are in default of their taxes to pay up or the tax collection administration is entitled to notify the border administration not to allow them to leave the country.

Another cited example was the regulation on inland river transport and safety management which states citizens are not allowed to set fishing nets in inland rivers which are used for transportation. If the fishing net were found, authorities are entitled to remove it if the citizen doesn't do so on his own accord.

"Administrative enforcement is important to efficient administrative management and to maintaining social order and protecting citizen's rights. However, if administrative measures are abused, citizen's rights and interests will be infringed," said Cao.

China's administrative compulsory measures include define citizen's freedoms, the closing of business ventures, confiscating facilities and properties, freezing bank deposits and securities.

In a bid to prevent governments from abusing their administrative enforcement power, the country's laws provide stringent procedures and safeguards.

The Law on Penalties against Public Order Offences entitles police to hold suspicious money or goods for further investigation, but they must provide a detailed list to owners who are entitled to witness the list being made. This is designed to prevent the money or goods from being embezzled during the investigation.

Cao said that in a bid to further regulate governments in administrative enforcement, China's legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), is reading a draft Administrative Mandatory Law, which nails down the principles and procedures of administrative compulsory measures and enforcement.

Cao said the forum will promote legal exchanges between China and Germany and will deepen the communication and understanding between legal circles of the two countries.

Brigitte Zypries, German Minister of Justice said that since China and Germany launched state-level talks on law, relation between the two countries has been further developed. The ongoing forum, with the theme of" administrative enforcement and protection of citizen's right", will further push forward the legal cooperation between the two countries.

The two-day forum attracted more than 100 officials and scholars from China and Germany.

(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2006)