President Xi presided over the second meeting of the Central Committee for the Comprehensive Rule of Law on the afternoon of February 25 and delivered an important speech, according to Xinhua News Agency. He emphasized that the 40 years ‘experience of reform and opening-up tells us that the rule of law is indispensable for all aspects of reform, development, and stability. The deeper the reform and opening-up, the more important it is to emphasize the rule of law. We should improve the planning for the construction of the rule of law and efficiency of legislative work, guarantee and serve the reform and development, create a harmonious and stable social environment, strengthen the construction of the rule of law about foreign countries, and create a good environment for it.

The report especially emphasizes the need to enhance the effectiveness of public participation, improve the quality of expert argument, adhere to the legitimacy review, and prevent and control decision-making risks. We should take the people as the center, proceed from reality, do our best according to our abilities, safeguard public important interests, promote social fairness and justice, and enhance people's sense of access, happiness and security through scientific procedures and decision.

We are deeply encouraged by the general secretary's instructions. Especially, the article emphasizes that "For main safety problems in food, medicine, and other fields, we should take radical measures to deal with them. We should use the law to safeguard the public's life safety and health."

Major safety issues in the field of food and medicine are of vital importance to the public interest of the whole society. The new Consumer Rights Protection Law, implemented on March 15, 2014, stipulates that consumer organizations above the provincial level may initiate public interest litigation. So, what is the effect of its implementation? The CBCGDF has done relative research before, but the data are scarce. (See Consumer Public Interest Litigation: A total of 12 cases filed by Consumers Association from 2014 to 2018. Where is the way to go?)

Consumption contributes nearly 80% of economic growth. How to use a long-term mechanism to effectively protect the public interests of consumers and people? For example, such as Wal-Mart in Beijing were sampled, and then relative department found that live fish sold in supermarkets had added carcinogen - Malachite green in the spring of 2016. What is malachite green? It is a prohibited carcinogen. This toxic triphenylmethane chemical, which was banned by the United States more than 20 years ago, is active in supermarkets and eventually enters the human body through the dining table. There are many things that endanger the interests of consumers, but consumers are often unable to do anything, they look forward to getting help from Consumers Association. In the end, reflection has not worked.

The report of the Nineteenth National Congress pointed out that "food safety strategy should be implemented so that people can enjoy their food". In September 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a number of opinions on improving the mechanism of consumption and further stimulating the consumption potential of residents, which clearly pointed out that we should improve the public interest litigation system and properly expand the scope of the subject.

Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of CBCGDF, pointed out that there are many public interest issues in the field of food and medicine, some of which are very popular, and others are relatively small; there are many contents, forms, and many aspects involved. It is undoubtedly not enough to rely on the strength of the regulators. Public interest litigation is now limited to Consumer Associations but judging from the number of consumer public interest litigation in the field of food and medicine in the past few years, everyone knows that this is far from enough, and far from meeting requirements of the protection of consumer interests.

Environmental public interest litigation is much better. The new Environmental Protection Law in 2015 gives social organizations the right to initiate environmental public interest litigation. The cases filed by social organizations throughout the country is not as "blowout" as some experts feared at the beginning. It can be said that the environmental public interest litigation system has greatly promoted the construction of the legal system and public environmental awareness and has greatly improved the work of enterprise supervision departments.

Therefore, the moderate opening of public interest litigation in the field of food and medicine will undoubtedly greatly improve the supervision of it, the reform of the situation, the maintenance of consumer interests, and the promotion of high-quality development. This will bring about fundamental changes in food and drug safety issues of great concern to our people. Participation of all relevant stakeholders, improvement of the law construction and environment are the fundamentals of solving the problem. As we said in the field of environment, people's participation in the fundamental solution, and it is the same as the field of food and medicine.

Consumer public interest litigation should not be limited to Consumer Association, it is time to re-assess. We should strengthen the design of it and expand the scope of its plaintiff. It is expected that in 2019, social organizations will be able to participate in major safety issues in the fields of food and medicine, Coordination with national policies, and open a new perspective for protect public interests.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/7751.html

By / Li Xue