Original Jason Lu Shiqing Shanghai Law Society

Jason Lu, Vice President of Labor Law Research Association of Shanghai Law Society, Director and Chief Partner of Shanghai Jiangsanjiao Law Firm.

Shi Qing, lawyer of Shanghai Jiangsanjiao Law Firm.

synopsis

A major feature of the sharing economy is to mobilize and match service providers through the big data mining of platform enterprises’ demand for consumers. As a result, the working time and space conditions in the sense of past labor relations have been diluted, and it is difficult for a large number of service providers to seek treatment and relief under them. Taking representative cases as samples, this paper makes a subtle analysis of the power structure of employers and employees in platform enterprises in different industries, and finds that although the contractual relationship between the two parties is different from the legal relationship model of labor relations in the past, the management of platform enterprises is actually strengthened. This reinforcement is embodied in ten aspects, such as deposit/deposit, training and attendance, remuneration payment, service provision, assessment and punishment, rewards and subsidies, collection and use of personal information, ownership of intellectual property rights, exclusion of competition and risk outsourcing. All kinds of social subjects in the risk control end, the labor-capital game end and the system design end are in their proper positions, which is a possible way to solve the systemic risk.

Keywords: sharing economy, digital labor, labor disputes, labor relations

I. Background

(A) the sharing economy in recent years: the momentum is rapid, and labor disputes have emerged.

Since 2012, with the emergence of "Didi taxi", the sharing economy has gradually entered the stage of Chinese economic history. Since then, in addition to e-commerce, mobile payment, audio sharing, online rental and bike-sharing have followed. In 2015, it was called "the first year of sharing economy". The sharing economy began to cover all aspects of social life, and services such as driving, housekeeping, beauty, hairdressing, cooking, and daily necessities maintenance became Internet-based.

A major feature of the sharing economy operation model is that at the application level, platform enterprises mobilize and match service providers through big data mining of "information platforms". This new employment mode has realized the digitalization and informationization of business information, work instructions, fund settlement and market evaluation, and the working time and space conditions in the past sense have been diluted.

Therefore, issues such as the protection of the rights and interests of service providers have gradually emerged, and related disputes have begun to arise. These disputes include not only individual disputes between the anchor of the live broadcast platform and domestic service personnel, but also group disputes such as online freight drivers and take-away riders.

In April 2018, Beijing Chaoyang Court analyzed 188 labor dispute cases of Internet platform enterprises tried from 2015 to the first quarter of 2018. In addition, the courts in Shanghai and Jiangsu have also published the gist of the relevant cases through the official media. China is exploring the legal issues of employment in platform enterprises.

(B) Labor relations in digital labor: from "ism" to "problems"

There is a long-standing dispute about the identification of labor relations under the platform of sharing economy (Internet platform). In 2014-2015, the practitioners, including government officials, judges and lawyers, almost overwhelmingly believed that in the context of the country’s vigorous development of the "internet plus", the external employment in the sharing economy should apply a more relaxed labor relations identification standard. Only some labor law scholars suggest that we should learn from the experience of Germany, Italy and Japan to avoid the situation of "marginal people without basic salary, unnecessary expense reimbursement, social security, high turnover rate and no economic compensation". With the expansion of the scope of the dispute, practical and theoretical research has gradually deepened. Sociologists began to use the method of field investigation to study the service providers’ professional psychology, and labor relations scholars also began to conduct quantitative research on the control of labor process by capital through internet technology. However, some network law scholars noticed the essence of the "illegal rise" of the sharing economy earlier, and continued to pay attention to the definition of property rights and the avoidance of responsibility in the integration of social resources from the two dimensions of digital labor and platform economy. These studies indicate that the understanding of the employment relationship in the sharing economic platform is gradually moving from an "ism" debate to a detailed and rational "technology" study. This paper selects several typical cases of sharing economic platform, and through the subtle analysis of the power structure of employers and employees behind the cases, reveals the logic behind the court decision, and puts forward some governance suggestions to expand the horizon to pay attention to the allocation of rights and obligations of various participants.

Second, the typical case and the representation of legal relationship

(1) Share typical cases of labor disputes on the economic platform

1. Zhang and Shanghai Lekuai Information Technology Co., Ltd. labor dispute case (chef case)

In this case, the defendant company operates an APP called "Good Chef", which can make online appointments for chefs to provide cooking services. The plaintiff, on the other hand, is an "online contract chef", who is dissatisfied with the company’s "stop paying wages" and appealed to arbitration, demanding that the two parties be confirmed as a labor relationship rather than a contractual "cooperative relationship", and that the company pay double wages, overtime pay, illegal termination of labor compensation, etc. After arbitration, first instance and second instance, the court of second instance finally confirmed the labor relationship between the two parties and supported their claim for economic compensation.

2. Liu v. Tianjin Wubadaojia Life Service Co., Ltd. (manicurist case)

In this case, the plaintiff signed a contract to settle in the beautiful APP platform operated by the defendant and signed the "58 Home Service Agreement". Later, the plaintiff unilaterally terminated the labor contract because the defendant did not pay social insurance and did not pay labor remuneration in full, and appealed to arbitration for confirmation of labor relations and payment of corresponding compensation. In this case, the plaintiff did not confirm the labor relationship because of the lack of proof submitted by the defendant to prove his management.

3. Xue Mou et al. v. Shanghai Shenzhou Huadong Car Rental Co., Ltd. and other motor vehicle traffic accident liability dispute case (car driver case)

At the same time, this case involves the network car driver, the network car platform company (Shenzhou company), the outsourcing company and the infringed party. Xue was injured by Shimou, the driver of Zhaoshi, who was a formal employee of the outsourcing company at the time of the accident and was performing the operation business distributed by the network car platform company. In addition, the accident vehicle is a non-operating vehicle registered under the name of the network car platform company. Subsequently, Xue sued Shimou, the platform company and the outsourcing company to the court. Because the court of first instance only found that Shimou had a labor relationship with the outsourcing company, it ruled that the outsourcing company was liable for compensation other than traffic compulsory insurance, while the network car platform company was not liable for the employer. Xue appealed to the network car platform company and the outsourcing company to bear joint liability. The court of second instance supported its claim.

4. He and Shanghai Panda Mutual Entertainment Culture Co., Ltd. confirmed the labor relations dispute appeal case (anchor case). The plaintiff in this case was a game anchor who settled in the defendant’s live broadcast network platform company and signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with the defendant. Because the plaintiff believed that the two parties were in a labor relationship, he filed a labor arbitration to determine the relationship, and the defendant paid double wages for the unsigned labor contract. After arbitration, first instance and second instance, the court finally failed to support its request.

5. Li and Beijing Tongcheng Bing Technology Co., Ltd. confirmed the labor relations dispute case (flash courier case)

In this case, Li, a flasher, had a traffic accident when he was engaged in the flasher business. In order to enjoy the treatment of work-related injury insurance, he sued the operator of the "flasher" platform to the court to confirm the existence of labor relations between the two parties. The key to this case is that the court broke through the business scope of the platform company and determined that it actually provided cargo transportation business, and then confirmed the labor relationship between the two parties through the judgment elements of labor relations.

(B) Representation: a legal relationship model different from previous labor relations.

It is worth noting that although the chef case and the flash courier case have confirmed the labor relationship between the two parties, they are still relatively few in all similar cases. In the current labor dispute cases of the sharing economic platform, the sharing economic platform almost invariably refuses to recognize the labor relationship with the service provider, while the court mainly examines the subject nature, management behavior, remuneration payment and business subordination according to the Notice on Establishing Labor Relations issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in 2005. Accordingly, the legal relationship model of sharing economic platform presents the following four characteristics which are different from those of previous labor relations.

1. "Bring your own dry food" practitioners

"Bring your own dry food" means that service providers may complete their tasks with their own work materials and ability. Internet platforms only provide business information and settlement support, and services are provided without the cooperation of other practitioners. The combination of labor relations is that employees must be attached to the employer and complete their work with the cooperation of other workers under the organization of the employer.

2. The business nature of "lump sum"

In the past identification of labor relations, the employers or organizations of employees often mastered the internal standards and external pricing of the products they produced, and supervised the industry access and the implementation of industry standards. However, at least in the early days, the sharing economy platform often does not regulate the access of practitioners, service standards and pricing. Some platforms even allow practitioners to get paid directly from customers, and practitioners are almost "all-in" self-employed. Of course, the internal and external responsibilities caused by them are also borne by practitioners.

3. Platform enterprises whose business scope is inconsistent with the business purpose.

Practitioners obtain service information from the Internet platform, but the Internet platform does not recognize the enjoyment of labor results. Platform enterprises often claim that they are actually engaged in the development and operation of application software and the integration and push of service information, and do not directly operate physical business. Therefore, there is a big gap between the labor of practitioners and the business scope of Internet platforms.

4. Weakened subordination

The subordination here is manifested in three levels:

First, the weakening of working time and space means that practitioners may have the autonomy to decide whether to work, working hours and even working forms, and are no longer on full-time standby and working. You only need a mobile phone to work all over the world.

Second, the attribute of task management is weakened, that is, the so-called grabbing orders instead of dispatching orders. After customers input consumption information into the Internet platform or the Internet platform to collect consumption information, they share the information in the practitioners’ terminals, and the practitioners choose to provide services or compete according to standards such as time sequence and distance, and the winners of the competition complete the consumption services.

Third, the core interests are weakened from the attributes, as shown in the second point.

Third, platform enterprises: the agreement excludes identification and actually strengthens management.

(1) Deposit/security deposit

Platform enterprises often collect deposits from service providers. The role of the deposit seems obvious, that is, the use fee of the means of production: for example, in the chef case, the platform enterprise said that the deposit was "the rental fee for providing chef’s clothes and cooking utensils, and it would be returned when the items were returned". In addition, some platforms also charge a deposit for transactions. For example, in a case of a manicurist service platform, the platform enterprise agreed that a manicurist should use the platform to obtain service order information, and should pay the deposit to the platform.

However, the use of this deposit/margin is often intertwined with the functions of other platform enterprises. The production materials provided by the platform enterprises are accompanied by the platform logo, and the obligation to pay the deposit/deposit actually constitutes the propaganda obligation of the service provider and the platform packaging of the platform to the service provider. The deposit/security deposit is also used to deduct the share drawn by the platform enterprise from the service fee, and the platform enterprise can also deduct the cost of using the means of production by the service provider from the remuneration it receives. In addition, some platform enterprises will also use the deposit as a weight to retain service providers when they are restructured, such as stipulating that "resignation within six months will not be refunded, resignation within six months to one year will be refunded by half, and full refund will be made after one year".

(2) Training and attendance

Also based on the requirements of standardized services and the consideration of platform packaging, platform enterprises often conduct pre-job training. For example, in the case of manicurist, platform enterprises require to participate in standardized training for services according to the order service standards formulated by them during the trial period. According to the manicurist, the training content includes nail technology, service process, how to use the beautiful APP platform and how to serve customers, etc., and there is income during the training period.

In addition, platform enterprises are not without attendance requirements. In the chef’s case, the chef said that he had to report to the office and dispatch station of the company’s management staff at 10: 00 in the morning, and he had to report here at 18: 30 in the evening, in the form of punching in, and his salary would be deducted if he was late. In the manicurist case, the manicurist also said that the platform enterprise stipulated the manicurist’s rest time in the APP platform, and there were four days’ rest in a month. The leave had to go through the platform, and he had to call the team leader appointed by the platform enterprise, and the team leader could rest only after applying for approval.

(3) Payment of remuneration

As the core point of determining the legal relationship between the two parties, remuneration payment needs special attention. Under the background of revenue sharing, platform enterprises often master pricing, control distribution and issue fixed "bonuses" on a monthly basis, but legally exclude monthly remuneration as the qualitative nature of wages.

1. Revenue sharing model

The compensation distribution mode between platform enterprises and service providers can be divided into two types according to whether the platform enterprises draw from it. In the case that the platform enterprises do not draw, the main business purpose is to collect information from the supply and demand sides, and the profit point is mostly advertising fees; In the case of platform enterprises, the profit point has shifted. In the case of the chef, the platform enterprise provides the chef with the above two revenue sharing methods, and the chef chooses the second one, that is, he not only accepts the door-to-door cooking service appointed by customers through the platform, but also is willing to accept the door-to-door cooking service appointed and dispatched by Party A.. At this time, the customer’s service fee is allocated by both parties, and the platform pays the chef’s expenses caused by scheduling. In the manicurist case, both parties agreed that the information service fee collected by the platform was 20% of the monthly service fee collected by the platform.

2. Pricing power of services

On the surface, self-employed people should enjoy the right to price the services they provide, including the right to decide the initial price and the right to adjust the price according to the objective situation or customer requirements in the actual service process. However, in practice, platform enterprises tend to firmly control the price agreed by both parties on the platform to prevent breach of contract or fraud from damaging the interests of the platform. For example, in the case of the chef, the platform enterprise agreed that the service price of the chef should not be modified without authorization once it is released. If the service price is changed to the reserved customer without authorization in violation of the regulations, the platform enterprise has the right to immediately terminate its cooperation relationship and demand compensation for the corresponding losses.

3. Settlement object

That is, whether the fees paid by customers are paid directly to the service provider or through the platform. In the case of manicurists, the platform claims that the income of manicurists comes from the service fees paid by manicurists in cash (that is, offline) or online. However, in its agreement with manicurists, it is written that the manicurists use the information services provided by the platform. After the trial period expires, the platform enterprises should be fully entrusted to collect and manage the service payment for orders on their behalf. At the time of settlement, the platform enterprise has the right to deduct the information service fee that the service provider should pay to the platform. In the case of Chef, the platform enterprise also recognized that the money received by the service provider was the cooperation fee paid by the platform enterprise as an intermediary platform after collecting the service payment from consumers.

4. The nature, standard and settlement cycle of remuneration

Platform enterprises often do not recognize the remuneration as wages, but recognize the remuneration as a "package income" mainly based on "incentive bonus". For example, in the case of the manicurist, although the platform enterprise advocates that the service provider’s labor remuneration on the platform comes from the service fee paid by the customers who receive nail services, it also agrees that the service provider can earn no less than 10,000 yuan per month (including meal supplement, order incentive bonus and other rewards that can be obtained according to the platform incentive policy) on the premise that the service provider abides by the relevant agreements. In the case of the chef, the platform enterprise claims that the remuneration paid is the cooperation fee including the over-single reward. In the anchor case, the two parties agreed that if the anchor reaches the minimum monthly live broadcast days, monthly average daily live broadcast times and monthly live broadcast duration, it will receive RMB 7,000. However, although the platform enterprises have agreed on a series of conditions for the payment of remuneration, they are still paid on a fixed monthly basis when actually paying.

(4) Provision of services

Corresponding to remuneration payment is service provision. In the process of service provision, platform enterprises often strictly control the service provider, the time and place of service, the right to choose and refuse.

1. Personal exclusivity

First of all, consistent with the agreements on publishing, performance and technology development, the service provider must provide services by himself, showing strong personal specificity. For example, the entry agreement of a live broadcast platform stipulates that "without the written consent of the platform, it is not allowed to directly or indirectly or in any way complete the live broadcast content agreed in this agreement by itself or entrust a third party", and once it is violated, the platform has the right to immediately terminate the contract and take the unpaid webcast fee as liquidated damages. If the amount of liquidated damages is still insufficient to compensate for the loss of the platform, the service provider should also make supplementary compensation.

2. Time and place of service

For the on-site service requirements put forward by customers, platform enterprises often require service providers to arrive at the service location on time. In the case of chef, if the platform enterprise agreed that the customer would make an appointment for home cooking to the service provider through the platform, the service provider should arrive at the service place to provide cooking service for the customer within the time agreed by the customer. In the manicurist case, if the service provider fails to arrive at the service location required by the customer on time, the platform has the right to punish until the cooperation relationship is terminated.

3. The right to choose and refuse services

Does the service provider have the right to choose customers? Under the mode of grabbing orders, service providers certainly have the right to choose customers, although the result of selection is uncertain. However, in the delivery mode, customers place orders online through APP software, and platform enterprises will give priority to pushing a service provider according to the geographical location of the service provider. At this time, the service provider will lose the right to choose.

So in this case, does the service provider have the right to refuse? This has become the main concern of judges and both parties in the identification of labor relations in platform enterprises. For example, in the chef case, if the court asks this question in court, the platform enterprise can refuse the answer, but it will affect the good award. If the service provider has no time, the platform enterprise can arrange others, but it needs to consult the customer in advance whether to accept or withdraw the order; The chef advocates that you can’t refuse to take orders, and if you refuse, you will deduct your salary. There are similar opposing views in the manicurist case.

(5) Supervision, assessment and punishment

Based on the comprehensive interests of platform enterprises and service providers, they often supervise and assess service providers and give corresponding disciplinary measures. For example, in the format agreement for the live broadcast of a platform, it is stipulated that platform enterprises have the right to formulate platform operation system and management rules for anchors, manage and supervise anchors, and have the right to adjust or change corresponding rules according to operation conditions, and the anchors understand and agree with this; In addition, the platform also has the right to inspect and judge the anchor, so as to establish (cancel) the reward or punishment for the anchor. The specific inspection items and standards shall be formulated separately by the platform, without the additional consent of the anchor.

In the manicurist case, the platform enterprise not only has assessment, but also has irregular disciplinary system: during the validity of the agreement, the platform has the right to assess the service providers irregularly, and has the right to classify the enjoyment level of order information services according to the assessment results and formulate information service policies and related systems during the assessment period. If the service fails to satisfy the customer and the customer complains, the platform has the right to impose a scoring disciplinary system on the manicurist. If the customer scores a certain number of bad reviews or complaints, the platform has the right to terminate the cooperative relationship with the manicurist and ask Party B to compensate the corresponding losses.

(6) Awards and subsidies

The reward and subsidy system of platform enterprises has also become an important incentive to attract service providers to register. For example, in the manicurist case, platform enterprises will pay subsidies according to the amount of bills, the amount of bills and customer evaluation. At the same time, however, platform enterprises also stipulate that "in order to adapt to the changing market policies and situation, the platform has the right to introduce certain incentive policies such as transportation subsidies and incentive bonuses from time to time, but service providers do not have the right to demand compensation, compensation or claim such subsidies, bonuses and other incentive funds in any way", which limits the right of service providers to claim them as wages. In the online live broadcast industry, where the gifteconomy is the most widely used, the service provider obtains the benefits by obtaining the virtual props donated by the users according to the exchange rules and sharing ratio formulated by the platform, and the rewards are directly linked to the customer evaluation (gifts).

(7) Collection and use of personal information

The transfer of personal information of service providers is also worthy of attention. In fact, as an important asset of platform enterprises, the acquisition of personal information of service providers is an inevitable requirement of platform brand promotion. In the settlement agreement of the live broadcast platform, it is often stipulated that the platform has the right to use the anchor’s name (including but not limited to your real name, pen name, screen name, previous name and any character symbol representing your identity) and portrait (including but not limited to real portrait and cartoon portrait, etc.) for all kinds of publicity. In the case of the chef, the two parties agreed that the chef "knows and agrees to provide some private information such as his own identity information and contact information to the platform and publish it", and at the same time "knows and agrees that the price corresponding to the cooking service he provides will be published and published by the platform. On the other hand, some platforms also take the publicity and promotion of service providers as a service. For example, in the case of manicurists, the platform will manage and display personal information and order service information for manicurists, and will push and promote them as "value-added services".

(8) Ownership of intellectual property rights

In the case that the provision of services will produce intellectual property rights, platform enterprises often determine their ownership through agreements. For example, it is stipulated in the agreement of a live broadcast platform that all intellectual property rights (including but not limited to intellectual property rights such as copyright and trademark rights and all related derivative rights), ownership and related rights of all achievements (including but not limited to commentary videos and audio, and any words, videos and audio related to the matters in this agreement) generated by the service provider during the live webcast of the platform shall be enjoyed by the platform enterprise. All this is free and unlimited. Without the written consent of the platform, the anchor shall not use or provide or authorize any third party in any way and obtain any income.

(9) Eliminate competition

On the basis of determining the rights, the platform enterprises will request to exclude the possibility of any competition among service providers. For example, in the anchor case, it is stipulated in the live broadcast agreement between the two parties: the anchor agrees to use the live broadcast platform as an exclusive platform for live internet sharing, and He promises not to share the live broadcast on any third-party internet platform outside the platform without the written consent of the platform during the cooperation period. The anchor shall not broadcast live games outside the scope specified or recognized by the platform, and shall not broadcast live in the name of non-platform recognition; Without the prior written consent of the platform, no non-platform product introduction is allowed; Do not undertake any commercial activities of any competitive platform during the agreement period, and do not upload the video uploaded to the platform directly or through a third party to the competitive platform.

It is worth noting that, despite a slight lack of supervision, some sharing economic platforms based on manual labor will still agree with service providers on "excluding competition" clauses. In the case of flash courier, the two parties agreed that "couriers should not provide services for other platforms at the same time", which eventually led to the court’s decision to confirm labor relations to some extent.

(X) Risk outsourcing

Even with the above-mentioned behaviors, platform enterprises often think that service providers are self-employed people at their own risk and should guarantee their services for defects. In both the manicurist case and the chef case, the platform pleaded that "the service provider is a freelancer who provides services to customers with his own skills at his own risk". The live broadcast platform also stipulates a "safeharbour" exemption: if the anchor results contain other people’s intellectual property rights, portrait rights, name rights or other legitimate rights and interests, it should ensure that the legal authorization of the relevant rights holders has been obtained, and it has the right to authorize the platform to be used permanently and free of geographical restrictions; In case of violation of the regulations, the platform has the right to require the anchor payment platform to pay the relevant fees to the other party by itself or by entrusting a third party, and deduct them from the webcast fee of the anchor in equal amount, and the insufficient part of the anchor should be supplemented; If the platform suffers any economic and reputational losses, the anchor shall make full compensation and be responsible for eliminating the adverse effects.

Another typical method of transferring risks is outsourcing. In the case of traffic accidents of car drivers, platform enterprises try to avoid the possibility of being liable to employers because of the car drivers’ job behavior by letting them sign labor contracts with outsourcing companies. Platform enterprises believe that according to Road traffic accident responsibility confirmation, the cause of the accident is improper operation of the driver, not the vehicle itself involved, and the platform enterprise is only the owner of the vehicle and there is no fault, so it should not bear any responsibility; The outsourcing company, which is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of the platform enterprise, voluntarily assumes the responsibility beyond the insurance scope. For the internet catering platform, it has become normal to outsource the labor relations of food delivery staff to other companies.

It should be noted that based on the business logic of sharing economic platform, although most of its management measures can be attributed to the above ten points, not all of them are applicable to a certain platform. For example, some platforms do not necessarily require service providers to provide guarantees, and some platforms do not necessarily restrict the competition of service providers or emphasize the ownership of intellectual property rights.

Nevertheless, it is still necessary to consider whether controlling one point or several points can actually lead to global control in management in the process of realizing commercial purposes of platform enterprises. For example, even if there are requirements for the anchor to get paid, such as the minimum number of days of monthly live broadcast (15 days), the average number of people per month (3,000 people per day) and the length of time (80 hours), such restrictions undoubtedly rule out any possibility that the anchor can use his major to do the same or similar work during the service period. You don’t just need a mobile phone to work all over the world at any time; But even if you only need a mobile phone, you must work on this platform every day. This leverage effect on the control of service providers is particularly worthy of attention under the background of the obvious trend of oligopoly pattern in various industries.

Fourth, the turn of the court: weighing the protection of rights and interests and sharing economic development

In the case of confirming labor relations, the judge first considers whether the individual has personal and organizational subordination, that is, how many "management privileges" the platform enterprises have.

For example, in the manicurist case, the reasons why the court found that the two sides did not belong to labor relations included:

(1) It is agreed by both parties that manicurists can choose their own working hours and working places, and there is no need to work in shifts, and there is no special and fixed office space;

(2) Both parties agree that the settlement method of the service fee includes online payment by the customer, which is paid to the manicurist on a monthly basis after deducting the information service fee from the platform, or the customer pays the manicurist directly in cash, so the income of the manicurist is composed of the customer service fee rather than paid labor arranged by the platform enterprise;

(3) The business scope of the platform enterprise is the collection and release of business supply information, excluding the operation of manicure business, so the manicure service provided by manicurists is not a part of the platform enterprise.

However, in the case of 2018, the author saw the turn of some local courts, especially Beijing courts. Its turn mainly considers the fairness of rights protection, the consistency of rights and obligations and the anti-risk ability of the contending subject.

(1) Fairness

In fact, behind fairness is the ranking of values worthy of national protection. For example, when it comes to citizens’ basic rights, such as labor safety and health, citizens’ health rights, etc., the court will tend to protect the disadvantaged party in the dispute. However, the court will treat it with caution if it involves demands such as double wages for unsigned labor contracts. For example, in the chef case, although the court found that the subordinate relationship between the two parties conforms to the essential characteristics of labor relations, at the same time, based on the signed Cooperation Agreement, the relevant labor rights and interests of the chef were legally guaranteed, so the service provider’s claim of double wage difference without signing a written labor contract was not supported.

(2) Consistency of rights and obligations

In addition to fairness, courts sometimes consider the consistency of rights and obligations of platform enterprises. For example, in the driver’s case, the court held that the vehicle was owned by the platform company, and the platform company also insured it. After the incident, the insurance company assumed the responsibility of claim settlement, and the original judgment found that the platform company did not assume the responsibility of claim settlement, which was inconsistent with law and reason; Moreover, the driver of the special car drives the vehicle of the platform company to operate according to the instructions of the platform company, and the car calling service and the payment of the fare of the relevant special car are operated through the platform company, and the proceeds also belong to the platform company. Since the platform company enjoys the rights, it should bear the corresponding liability for compensation.

In the case of flash courier, the judge even pointed out that platform enterprises should not bear the legal and social responsibilities they should bear because they have adopted new technical means and new business methods.

(3) Ability to resist risks

The application of anti-risk ability first appears in the distribution of burden of proof. For example, in the chef case, the court held that the platform company, as a network company, has the ability and obligation to prove the details of the "cooperation" between its company and the chef under the business model with the mobile Internet as the background, so as to prove that the "cooperation" process between the two parties fully conforms to the terms stipulated in its cooperation agreement. Although the platform company claims that the remuneration paid to chefs on the 15th of each month is cooperation fees such as over-the-counter rewards, not wages, as the remuneration issuer, it has not provided evidence to prove the calculation details and specific basis for paying chefs’ remuneration, nor has it provided evidence to prove that the "Good Chef" platform reward policy has been delivered to the chefs or reached an agreement with them, so it should be considered that this fee is the nature of wages.

In addition, the judgment standard of anti-risk ability is also directly reflected in the system design of labor management. In the case of flash courier, the judge held that as a company operating by using new technical means, it can fully use the advantages of information technology to realize legal operation and management. The court cannot refuse to provide basic rights relief to workers because the relevant supporting system is not perfect. Therefore, the responsibility of reducing employment risks is directly assigned to the enterprises sharing the economic platform.

V. Jiang Triangle Viewpoint: The governance of labor disputes in the sharing economy requires the social subjects to "take their places".

However, the turn of the above courts is only a very small number in the current overall judicial decisions. Based on the local court’s consideration of the local political and economic environment and many other subjective and objective reasons, it is still difficult for the system implementation end to make long-term considerations such as the case of flash courier. Therefore, the author believes that in the management of labor disputes in the sharing economy, we should broaden our horizons to pay attention to the distribution of rights and obligations of various participants, which is mainly reflected in risk control, labor-capital game and system design.

(1) Risk control end

The prevention of disputes within enterprises is the main barrier to control risks, but nowadays platform enterprises generally fail to completely exhaust the existing labor system subjectively or objectively. Positive cases, such as an Internet electronic equipment maintenance platform, also encountered many personnel management confusion problems that start-up Internet companies often encountered when it was established in 2015. After systematic employment design, through outsourcing relationship, labour relation, labor dispatch relationship, and applying for special working hours under standard labor relations, the risk management and control of employment in Internet platform enterprises are completed. The systematic design of employment mode not only gives service providers a sense of belonging, but also curbs the current situation of service providers "taking private jobs", thus achieving a win-win situation between labor and capital, making this enterprise one of the few industry unicorns.

(B) Labor-capital game end

Another reason for frequent labor disputes in platform enterprises is the lack of collective organization and collective bargaining. A positive case, for example, in Shanghai in early 2018, the first online food delivery industry trade union in China-Putuo District Online Food Delivery Industry Trade Union Federation was established. There are five online food delivery workers’ unions established in Putuo District, and more than 400 online food delivery workers have joined the unions. In addition, the advantage of Internet economy lies in the perfect evaluation system, and the ubiquitous digital labor is providing channels for civil supervision. For example, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration has piloted an internal reporting system for take-away food delivery staff, encouraging more than 30,000 take-away food delivery staff in Shanghai to find and report the problem merchants on the online ordering platform at the first time. This system, to some extent, shares the regulatory responsibility of platform enterprises.

(3) System design end

A typical case of system design is the Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Booking Taxi Operating Services jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Communications in 2016. This method provides detailed regulations on the network car platform company, vehicles and drivers of the network car, and the management behavior of the network car, which largely regulates the benefit distribution of the network car industry in China and affects its development pattern. However, in other industries, the value distribution link of the sharing economy has been seriously neglected, and the corresponding system design is extremely lacking. To understand the value distribution state of sharing economy, firstly, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the temporal and spatial pedigree of digital labor, and secondly, it is necessary to analyze the formation and development model of sharing economy platform. In addition, what is special for China is that the Internet economy (or digital economy) and the network security problems it brings almost coincide with globalization. A major feature of its business model is to break through the boundaries of the atomic world (national boundaries). In this bit world, the global ecology of digital economy industry and the flow of value chain are equally worthy of attention.

In recent years, the global Internet economy has developed rapidly, and it has continuously impacted a country’s existing systems such as competition law, copyright law, privacy law, labor and employment law. The platform economy lies in the development mode of Internet enterprises, and its risks are often accompanied by huge benefits. On the other hand, Internet companies in China are constantly going abroad, and some of them have even become a model for a country to learn from. Therefore, China should take the lead in controlling the systemic risks of the whole society that may be caused by Internet platform enterprises, and China Internet enterprises should take the corresponding social responsibilities.

Shanghai Law Society welcomes your contribution.

fxhgzh@vip.163.com

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Source: Shanghai Law Research, Volume 15, 2019 (Labor Law Research Volume). Please indicate the source when quoting and reprinting.

Original title: "Jason Lu Shiqing: A Judicial Case Study of Typical Labor Disputes in China Sharing Economic Platform"

Read the original text

　　According to US media reports, the new york subway and the Amtrak)21 train between New Jersey and New York both experienced large-scale delays on the 21st. During the morning rush hour on the 21st, due to the power failure of the subway tunnel in midtown Manhattan, many subways were delayed and eventually had to be diverted. In the San Francisco area, there was a large-scale power outage in the city, traffic stopped and 90,000 users were cut off.

　　On the afternoon of 21st, the subway line A/B/C/D/E/F/G/J/M/N/Q/R, which was delayed in the morning, resumed normal running, and the lines 2 and N were diverted. The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Authority (MTA) said that citizens need not worry about the train operation during the Friday night rush hour. At present, the power company is still investigating the cause of the power outage, while the subway station on 7th Avenue and 53rd Street is still in a state of power outage.

　　According to the report, at 7: 30 in the morning, a D-line subway stopped for a long time in the subway station tunnel of 53rd Street on 7th Avenue in Manhattan, and hundreds of passengers were trapped in it. A passenger said that it was very uncomfortable. "I think we stayed for a long time, and the staff said it was because of power problems."

　　Another E-line subway had already stopped at the platform, so the passengers on board were lucky enough to leave the carriage.

　　Passengers posted photos of congested subway stations and dark subway cars on Twitter.

　　Amtrak train delays and congestion at Newark and Pennsylvania stations

　　On the morning of 21st, commuters between new york and New Jersey also suffered a large delay.

　　According to the New Jersey MRT, the train routes of Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast, Raritan Valley and Midtown Direct were all delayed in the morning rush hour on Friday. Some passengers stayed in the tunnel for nearly an hour.

　　Commuters say that although this is uncomfortable, it is no longer news.

　　Ari Ginsberg, a resident of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, said, "Amtrak trains are unreliable. You have to leave an hour earlier. I hope they will change. "

　　Large-scale power outage in downtown San Francisco, 90,000 users were affected by traffic stoppage.

　　At 9 o’clock on Friday morning, there was also a large-scale power outage in San Francisco. Many areas including downtown, financial district, Marina and Presidio in the west suffered power outages, and most commercial activities came to a standstill. After emergency repair, the power company has resumed part of the power supply at noon, indicating that most of the power supply will be resumed at 1 pm.

　　Except for residential and commercial buildings, the BART subway station in downtown San Francisco has been closed, the traffic lights from Union Square to Marina District have failed, and the cable car of San Francisco has also stopped.

　　A spokesman for Pacific Electric Company said that at least 90,000 users were blacked out and the substation in Larkin Street caught fire. It is not clear whether the fire caused a large-scale power outage.

　　The San Francisco Fire Department has received several calls, including reports that someone was trapped in the elevator, but no one was injured at present.

　　Many schools in San Francisco also lost power, including Spring Valley Science and Technology Middle School, Sutro Primary School, Civic Center Primary School Alamo Primary School, Galileo Academy Science and Technology Middle School and Cobb Primary School.

　　BEIJING, Beijing, November 25 (Zhang Yuhui) On the 26th, the written examination of public subjects in the 2024 national examination will be held soon. According to the National Civil Service Bureau, the national examination plans to recruit 39,600 people. By the end of online registration and qualification examination, a total of 3.033 million people have passed the qualification examination of the employer, and the ratio of the number of qualified people to the number of employment plans is about 77:1.

　　There are such a group of candidates who are racing against time to prepare for the upcoming written test, but they are also experiencing a wave of refund of fees that spans two years.

　　In recent years, public examination training has become an industrial chain. In order to stand out from the competition, some candidates are determined to invest in themselves. However, what is waiting for them is not the guarantee of refund even if they fail, but the routine of the public examination training agreement class.

　　Routine 1: "But no refund"

　　After the failure of the public examination in 2022, Cheng Yan (pseudonym) began her nearly one-year road to safeguarding rights. Unlike the 30-45 days agreed in the agreement to submit the refund formalities and verify them, she didn’t receive the long-deserved refund of 40 thousand yuan until the end of May this year. Nowadays, a group of candidates who signed up for the 2023 public examination training agreement class embarked on the road she had traveled and struggled in the difficult rights protection.

　　Song Ming (a pseudonym) is one of them. In August, 2022, he signed up for the full-course agreement class of written examination and interview in a training institution, and signed an agreement with the institution, which stipulated in detail the conditions, standards and handling procedures of the refund. After Song Ming failed to "land" successfully, he applied to the training institution for refund of training fees. However, from the submission of the refund formalities on August 8 to now, he has not waited for the 36,500 yuan refund promised by the training institution.

　　"There is no following when submitting the refund information, and the same is true for others. Everyone is stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in the organization." The experience of Song Ming and other students who are defending their rights stems from the "no refund" promised by the organization at that time.

　　Zhongxin. com searched on social platforms and found that students who signed up for the "no refund" public examination training class abound. According to the analysis of some education experts, the students failed the exam, which is caused by two factors, one is teaching, and the other is learning. However, the business model of "no return, no return" attributes all the students to the teaching side, which is equivalent to giving the students a blank check.

　　The storm of refund is getting worse. According to Song Ming, now, the training institution he signed up for has cancelled the full-refund agreement class and changed to fail the exam and refund part of the money. An intermediary of the training institution told Zhongxin. com that at present, there are three charging methods for the provincial examination agreement class in 2024, among which students can pay 22,999 yuan in advance and refund 5,000 yuan after being hired. Although the refund fee has been reduced, the "promise" of "no refund" continues.

　　Routine 2: From "No Money to Retire" to "Retire by Stages"

　　In August last year, the list of candidates for the provincial examination positions and the positions for adjustment, replacement and re-recording in a certain province was announced, and Liu Jia (pseudonym) decided to fail in the provincial examination. When I took the exam, it was an epidemic. Liu Jia and the students who also signed up for the agreement class took risks and took part in the whole process of the exam. The reason was that the agreement stipulated that only by taking the relevant links of the exam could I get a refund after failing the exam. "The public exam training is very expensive, and I still have friends who smashed 50,000 to 60,000." However, after she applied for a refund from the training institution, the institution declined in October saying that "there is no money to refund" and proposed that she could go to the written test class for two months in the second half of the year. After Liu Jia refused, from December to January this year, the agency proposed to Liu Jia to refund the fees by stages.

　　The agreement signed between Liu Jia and the training institution stipulates that "Party A will pay the refund amount to the bank account provided by Party B within 30-45 working days after receiving the complete refund formalities submitted by Party B and verifying that the materials are true and meet the refund conditions", and there is no mention of the refund in installments. "If I don’t agree to ask for a full refund in installments, I may not be able to refund it when, so I accepted the installment refund proposed by the organization with the mentality of getting it back first." However, after receiving several refunds, in June this year, the institution stopped the refund, which was about 6,000 yuan short of the promised refund of 19,800 yuan.

　　There are also students who disagree with the installment refund that is not stated in the agreement, as Cheng Yan did. "At that time, many people on the Internet suggested not to accept staging, so I refused. They have already broken the contract and said that they will be phased. Who knows if they will abide by the agreement? " Cheng Yan believes that if the training institutions have integrity, they should refund the fees on time, and should not "make another mistake".

　　After the phased refund of fees stopped, Liu Jia began to complain about the training institutions to the 12345 hotline, the Education Commission, the petition departments and other forces. Later, Liu Jia learned that the agency seemed to be "rich again". After many complaints and help, Liu Jia finally got a full refund in October this year. At the same time, Song Ming accepted the installment refund with a total value of nearly 40,000 yuan, but only received one issue and never heard back. "As long as you don’t complain about them, it’s nothing."

　　In June this year, Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee announced the results of a special survey on the education and training industry for the postgraduate entrance examination, which involved six public examination institutions. The survey results show that the refund process is cumbersome and the training institutions shirk their responsibilities. According to the survey, 38.9% of the respondents indicated that they had had the experience of refunding fees, among which 81.1% of the respondents indicated that they encountered unreasonable fee deduction or refused to refund fees. The main manifestations of the cumbersome refund were harsh conditions, failure to refund fees according to the agreement, long refund time, cumbersome refund procedures, refusal to refund fees and changing classes. In addition, judging from the complaints, in the process of refund, consumers often encounter the situation that staff members lose contact and institutions shirk their responsibilities, which makes it difficult to refund fees.

　　Routine 3: "Go through legal procedures"

　　"I can’t retreat, you can go through legal procedures." After the application for refund failed, some students waited for such a sentence from the training institution.

　　According to the data of Sky Eye Survey, among the main causes of judicial cases in an education and training institution, there are 292 disputes related to education and training contracts, ranking first. Among them, 117 cases have been closed and 175 cases have not been closed.

　　The cause of action of an education and training institution involved in judicial cases is in the top ten. The picture comes from Tianyancha.

　　After decisively rejecting the installment refund proposed by the institution, Cheng Yan initiated a lawsuit on the electronic litigation platform of the court where the institution belongs. After filing the case, the court suggested that Cheng Yan withdraw the lawsuit and told her that she would supervise the institution to refund the full amount at the agreed time, and she received the refund after withdrawing the lawsuit. The whole process lasted for more than half a year, but fortunately Cheng Yan finally received a full refund.

　　Cheng Yan mentioned that there are two ways to resolve the disputes in the agreement, namely "bringing a lawsuit to the people’s court" and "applying to the Arbitration Commission for arbitration". A person who provides legal services related to education and training contract disputes told Zhongxin.com that everyone’s training agreement is different. "Agreed litigation can only be litigation, and agreed arbitration can only be arbitration." After submitting the arbitration application and passing the pre-trial, the complainant needs to pay an arbitration fee of 17,000 yuan to the arbitration commission in advance, which shall be borne by the losing party after the case is concluded. The legal service person said that arbitration is final and the result is faster.

　　"I haven’t learned how to go through legal procedures. I only know that I have spent a lot of energy and money." In order to wait for the refund, Song Ming was exhausted.

　　This refund storm is still to be continued.

In the battle against pneumonia infected by novel coronavirus, countless medical staff stood at the forefront without hesitation.

In the face of the epidemic, medical workers volunteered, saved lives, and faced difficulties. With their actions, we saw the fearlessness, tenacity, dedication and persistence of the soldiers in white. Protect the lives of the public with their lives. Let’s pay tribute to the medical workers on the front line of fighting the epidemic.

Take the initiative to join the front line regardless of life and death.

"I applied to join the fight against’ novel coronavirus’ and contribute our meager strength." Seven doctors, urologist Wang Bo and neurologist Hu Jun from the Department of Endocrinology, People’s Hospital of Jiangxia District, Wuhan, applied to the organization, and pressed their bright red handprints together on the invitation letter. This is also the voice of 4000 soldiers in white in Jiangxia District.

Wang Bo said that the current epidemic situation is grim, and the hospital undertakes a lot of rescue work. As a party member, it should take the lead, regardless of life and death.

The medical staff of Jiangxia District People’s Hospital in Wuhan pressed their handprints on the invitation letter.

Wuhan is now adopting the "10+10" model, and 10 large hospitals have contributed personnel, technology and strength to requisition the venues, beds and medical staff of 10 small and medium-sized hospitals as designated hospitals to treat suspected and confirmed cases. Every medical worker has consciously shouldered the heavy responsibility of fighting the epidemic.

A copy of the gauntlet shows the fearlessness of the soldiers in white. Leave the danger to yourself and protect the health of the citizens with your life. Choosing the profession of "doctor" means choosing dedication, which is the commitment of medical staff to protect their lives.

"I didn’t tell mingchang about it. Personally, I feel that I don’t need to tell, it was a battlefield everywhere! " In an invitation to fight against new pneumonia, Associate Professor Zhang Yong, a female doctor in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, People’s Hospital of Wuhan University, wrote a modern version of "The Book of Peace with the Husband".

Associate Professor Zhang Yong, Female Doctor of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, People’s Hospital of Wuhan University

On January 18, with the all-round development of the epidemic, Zhang You, as the secretary of the Party branch of the department, wrote an invitation letter to the Party Committee of the People’s Hospital of Wuhan University: "In a battlefield where the enemy is invisible, no one will be spared! I applied to stay in the observation room for a long time to further sort out the patients. The advantage is that there is no need for constant in-hospital consultation, which can reduce the burden on other doctors, patients can also get continuous treatment, and the beds in the observation room can also flow. "

When writing down the invitation letter, Zhang Yong specifically noted that her husband, Professor Li Mingchang, who works in the People’s Hospital of Wuhan University and serves as the deputy director of the Department of Neurosurgery I, was not informed about this matter.

"I saw her invitation letter from someone else’s circle of friends. I strongly support her decision, but I hope she can protect herself and her colleagues while treating patients. I am waiting for your triumph! " Li Mingchang is careful.

For treatment, wearing heavy protective clothing

Since the outbreak of pneumonia in novel coronavirus, the number of cases has been increasing. The first-line medical staff should protect themselves while effectively curbing the spread of the epidemic in time.

After removing the heavy protective clothing and goggles, Zhou Qiong, an associate professor of respiratory medicine at Union Medical College Hospital, showed a tired face. In Zhou Qiong, for example, one doctor has to take care of three patients, and the ward has a 24-hour shift.

"Wearing a heavy three-level protective isolation suit has to work continuously for more than 8 hours per shift. Wearing it for a long time also has an impact on the line of sight. I can’t see it clearly. After an hour of ward rounds in the isolation ward, I am all soaked." Zhou Qiong said, at the same time, every day to the isolation ward rounds, put on protective clothing after the reaction decreased, sometimes can’t remember the patient’s symptoms and imaging results, which requires repeated inspection.

Behind the heavy protective isolation suit is the persistence of the doctor.

Behind the heavy protective isolation suit is the persistence of the doctor. If you don’t eat or drink for hours, the sweat in goggles, deep indentation on your face and chapped lips are the most beautiful looks of medical workers.

Dr. Zhang Cong, 25, just graduated from Jianghan University in July 2019 and joined the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Wuhan Sixth Hospital. He never imagined that after New Year’s Day this year, his mother and grandmother were found to be infected with novel coronavirus.

"The department asked him to rest and take care of his family, but he refused." Li Fajiu, deputy director of the department, said that at the dangerous moment when two relatives at home were both infected and admitted to the isolation ward, the young Dr. Zhang Cong never took a day off for everyone, packed his bags and camped in the hospital for more than 20 days, and always fought side by side with his colleagues at the forefront.

While taking care of his family, Zhang Cong saved the wounded and rescued the dying. In less than a month, a tall man with a height of 1.88 meters suddenly lost 12 pounds. "But soldiers always have to go to the battlefield. We are soldiers in white. If we don’t reach the front line of battle, we will regret it for life." Zhang Cong said firmly.

Wash your hands more than a hundred times a day. Zhang Cong’s hands are chapped.

One of the methods advocated by experts to prevent new coronary virus is hand washing, which is also one of the things that Zhang Cong does most. Every day, he must wash his hands before wearing isolation suits, hats and masks and examining patients. On average, Zhang Cong washes his hands more than 100 times a day. Because he washes his hands too often and wears airtight gloves, his hands are peeled off and covered with cracks, which is extremely itchy. He always smiled and said, "Nothing! Men are not afraid of being rough! " It was his rough hands that saved precious lives.

Re-entry into the anti-epidemic and anti-war

"If you fall down, you can stand up again." After a week of isolation treatment at home, Professor Zhang Jinnong, the director of the emergency department of the Union Medical College Hospital, said, "After recovery, I will continue to participate in this battle and fight side by side with everyone."

Since December 31, 2019, Zhang Jinnong has been working in a fever clinic for a long time, with high intensity for half a month. Extremely tired and in close contact with high frequency, even though strict preventive measures were taken, his body lit up with a red light. He developed fever, chills, sore throat and other symptoms, and was confirmed as pneumonia infected by novel coronavirus after examination.

Zhang Jinnong, Director of Emergency Department of Union Medical College Hospital (photo of daily work)

After the diagnosis came out, Professor Zhang was treated in isolation at home, and he didn’t stop working during the isolation. Facing the different characteristics between the epidemic and SARS, he quickly summed up the clinical experience, and repeatedly consulted the references, and drafted the highly practical "wuhan union hospital’s Strategies and Instructions for Dealing with novel coronavirus Infection in 2019", which provided valuable experience for medical workers in the country.

Guo Qin, a nurse from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, was accidentally infected in clinical work and returned to work immediately after recovery.

Guo Qin, a nurse in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.

After the outbreak of novel coronavirus, 38-year-old Guo Qin has been in the emergency ward, taking care of critically ill patients. During the period, I worked for more than 10 hours every day, and treated and cared for nearly 100 patients.

On the evening of January 12th, Guo Qin felt feverish after working for many days. The next day, after examination, she was diagnosed with novel coronavirus. The hospital immediately arranged for her to live in the isolation ward.

"The taste of isolation treatment is not good. Although my colleagues keep comforting me, I am still worried and depressed." Guo Qin said frankly that he even left her husband "last words": "If I die, I must take good care of my 11-year-old son and take good care of the elderly on both sides."

After 3 days of treatment and 14 days of isolated observation, Guo Qin, who was negative for two consecutive nucleic acid tests (with an interval of 24 hours) and was assessed by experts to be in good health, returned to the emergency center of Central South Hospital on the morning of January 28 to continue nursing inpatients.

"Today’s rescue work is still under great pressure. Many colleagues are working overtime in the front line and are very tired." Guo Qin said that as a Communist party member, he should play a vanguard and exemplary role, return to his post as soon as possible, and share the pressure of treatment for his colleagues.

On the first day after returning to work, Guo Qin was most gratified that a novel coronavirus patient who was treated by his colleagues two weeks ago also recovered and was discharged on the same day.

"Come on, put on gloves, masks, goggles and protective clothing, and get dressed quickly. We are ready to enter the intensive care unit."

In Wuhan, thousands of medical staff are directly involved in the front line of treatment. Behind them, there are more medical staff silently supporting them and standing by at any time.

　　order of the president of the people’s republic of china

　　No.65

　　The Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the Protection of the Yangtze River was adopted by the 24th session of the 13th the NPC Standing Committee of the People’s Republic of China on December 26th, 2020, and is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of March 1st, 2021.

　　Chairman People’s Republic of China (PRC), Supreme Leader

　　December 26, 2020

　　Catalogue

　　Chapter I General Principles

　　Chapter II Planning and Control

　　Chapter III Protection of Resources

　　Chapter IV Prevention and Control of Water Pollution

　　Chapter V Restoration of Ecological Environment

　　Chapter VI Green Development

　　Chapter VII Guarantee and Supervision

　　Chapter VIII Legal Liability

　　Chapter IX Supplementary Provisions

　　Chapter I General Principles

　　Article 1 This Law is formulated with a view to strengthening the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin, promoting the rational and efficient utilization of resources, ensuring ecological security, and realizing the harmonious coexistence between man and nature and the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

　　Article 2 This Law shall be observed in the protection and restoration of the ecological environment and in all kinds of production, living, development and construction activities in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The term "Yangtze River Basin" as mentioned in this Law refers to the relevant county-level administrative regions of Qinghai Province, Sichuan Province, Xizang Autonomous Region Province, Yunnan Province, Chongqing City, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai, as well as Gansu Province, Shaanxi Province, Henan Province, Guizhou Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province, Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province.

　　Article 3 In the economic and social development of the Yangtze River Basin, we should adhere to ecological priority and green development, and make great efforts to protect and not to develop. The protection of the Yangtze River should adhere to overall coordination, scientific planning, innovation-driven and systematic governance.

　　Article 4 The State shall establish a coordination mechanism for the Yangtze River basin, give unified guidance and overall coordination to the Yangtze River protection work, review major policies and plans for the Yangtze River protection, coordinate major issues across regions and departments, and supervise and inspect the implementation of the important work for the Yangtze River protection.

　　Article 5 The relevant departments of the State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall be responsible for implementing the decision of the national Yangtze River Basin coordination mechanism, and shall be responsible for the work related to the protection of the Yangtze River in accordance with the division of responsibilities.

　　The local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin shall carry out the responsibilities of protecting and restoring the ecological environment in their respective administrative areas, promoting the rational and efficient utilization of resources, optimizing the industrial structure and layout, and maintaining the ecological security of the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The heads of rivers and lakes at all levels in the Yangtze River basin are responsible for the protection of the Yangtze River.

　　Article 6 Relevant places in the Yangtze River Basin shall, according to needs, establish cooperation mechanisms in the formulation of local laws and government regulations, planning, supervision and law enforcement, etc., so as to jointly promote the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 7 The relevant departments in charge of ecological environment, natural resources, water administration, agriculture and rural areas and standardization in the State Council shall, in accordance with the division of responsibilities, establish and improve the standard systems of water environment quality and pollutant discharge, ecological environment restoration, water resource conservation and intensive utilization, ecological flow, biodiversity protection, aquaculture, disaster prevention and mitigation in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Article 8 The competent department of natural resources in the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments in the State Council, regularly organize surveys on the natural resources in the Yangtze River basin, such as land, minerals, water, forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc., establish a basic database of resources, carry out evaluation on the carrying capacity of resources and environment, and announce the natural resources in the Yangtze River basin to the public.

　　The department in charge of wildlife protection in the State Council shall organize a general survey of wildlife and its habitat every ten years, or organize a special investigation according to the needs, establish a wildlife resource file, and announce the wildlife resources in the Yangtze River basin to the public.

　　The competent agricultural and rural departments of the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the people’s governments at the corresponding levels, conduct biodiversity surveys on important habitats such as spawning grounds, feeding grounds, wintering grounds and migration routes for aquatic organisms.

　　Article 9 The national coordination mechanism for the Yangtze River Basin shall coordinate the relevant departments of the State Council to improve the monitoring network system and monitoring information sharing mechanism for the ecological environment, resources, hydrology, meteorology, shipping and natural disasters in the Yangtze River Basin on the basis of established stations and monitoring projects.

　　The relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall, in accordance with the division of responsibilities, organize and improve the ecological environment risk reporting and early warning mechanism.

　　Article 10 The competent department of ecology and environment of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council and the people’s government at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin, establish and improve the emergency linkage mechanism for sudden ecological and environmental incidents in the Yangtze River Basin, link up with the national emergency response system, and strengthen the emergency management of sudden ecological and environmental incidents in ships, ports, mines, chemical plants and tailings ponds in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 11 The State shall strengthen the construction of monitoring, forecasting, early warning, defense, emergency response and recovery and reconstruction systems for floods, droughts, forest and grassland fires, geological disasters and earthquakes in the Yangtze River basin, so as to improve the ability of disaster prevention, mitigation, resilience and relief.

　　Article 12 The National Yangtze River Basin Coordination Mechanism shall set up an expert advisory committee to organize professional institutions and personnel to carry out scientific and technical professional consultation on major development strategies, policies and plans of the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The relevant departments of the State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall, in accordance with the division of responsibilities, organize the third-party assessment, analysis and demonstration of the impacts of Yangtze River Basin construction projects, important infrastructure and industrial layout planning on the Yangtze River Basin ecosystem.

　　Thirteenth national Yangtze River basin coordination mechanism to coordinate the relevant departments of the State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level to establish and improve the Yangtze River basin information sharing system. The relevant departments of the State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall, in accordance with the provisions, share information on the ecological environment, natural resources and management and law enforcement in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Fourteenth relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments should strengthen the publicity and education of ecological environment protection and green development in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The news media should take various forms to carry out publicity and education on ecological environment protection and green development in the Yangtze River basin, and supervise the illegal acts by public opinion according to law.

　　Article 15 The relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall take measures to protect the famous historical and cultural cities, towns and villages in the Yangtze River Basin, strengthen the protection of cultural heritage in the Yangtze River Basin, and inherit and carry forward the excellent characteristic culture in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 16 The State encourages and supports units and individuals to participate in the activities of protecting and restoring the ecological environment, rationally utilizing resources and promoting green development in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Units and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to the protection of the Yangtze River shall be commended and rewarded by the people’s governments at or above the county level and their relevant departments in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state.

　　Chapter II Planning and Control

　　Article 17 The State shall establish a planning system for the Yangtze River basin under the guidance of national development planning, based on spatial planning, supported by special planning and regional planning, and give full play to the leading, guiding and restraining role of planning in promoting the ecological environment protection and green development of the Yangtze River basin.

　　Eighteenth the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall incorporate the protection of the Yangtze River into the national economic and social development plan.

　　The development and reform department of the State Council, together with the relevant departments of the State Council, worked out the development plan of the Yangtze River Basin, scientifically coordinated the ecological environment protection and green development of the upper and lower reaches, left and right banks, main tributaries of the Yangtze River Basin, and implemented it after being approved by the State Council.

　　Water resources planning and ecological environment protection planning in the Yangtze River basin shall be compiled in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations.

　　Article 19 The competent department of natural resources of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council, organize the compilation of the land spatial planning of the Yangtze River Basin, scientifically and orderly arrange the functional spaces of ecology, agriculture and towns in the Yangtze River Basin, delimit the red line of ecological protection, permanent basic farmland and urban development boundaries, optimize the land spatial structure and layout, and guide the land spatial utilization tasks of the Yangtze River Basin, which shall be implemented after being approved by the State Council. The special planning involving the use of land and space in the Yangtze River Basin should be linked with the land and space planning in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall organize the compilation of the land spatial planning of their respective administrative areas, and implement it after being submitted for approval in accordance with the prescribed procedures.

　　Article 20 The State shall exercise use control over the land space in the Yangtze River Basin. The competent departments of natural resources of the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the land space planning, exercise zoning and classified use control over the land space of the Yangtze River Basin under their jurisdiction.

　　The development and utilization of land space in the Yangtze River Basin shall meet the requirements for the control of land space use and obtain planning permission according to law. The competent department of natural resources of the people’s government at or above the county level shall not apply for planning permission if it does not meet the requirements for the control of land and space use.

　　Twenty-first the State Council water administrative departments to co-ordinate the rational allocation, unified scheduling and efficient utilization of water resources in the Yangtze River basin, and organize the implementation of the total water intake control and consumption intensity control management system.

　　The competent department of ecological environment in the State Council shall, according to the water environment quality improvement objectives and water pollution prevention and control requirements, determine the total emission control indicators of key pollutants in the provincial administrative regions of the Yangtze River Basin. In the water functional areas where the water quality in the Yangtze River basin exceeds the standard, stricter requirements for reducing the total amount of pollutant discharge should be implemented. Enterprises and institutions shall, in accordance with the requirements, take measures to control the total discharge of pollutants.

　　The competent department of natural resources in the State Council is responsible for the overall planning and control of the total amount of new construction land in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Twenty-second people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, according to the ecological environment and the utilization of resources in their respective administrative areas, formulate the ecological environment zoning control scheme and the ecological environment access list, and report them to the competent department of ecological environment in the State Council for the record before implementation. Eco-environmental zoning control scheme and eco-environmental access list should be connected with national land spatial planning.

　　The industrial structure and layout of the Yangtze River basin should be adapted to the carrying capacity of the Yangtze River basin ecosystem and resources and environment. It is forbidden to lay out industries that have a serious impact on the ecosystem in key ecological function areas of the Yangtze River Basin. It is forbidden for heavily polluting enterprises and projects to transfer to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

　　Article 23 The State strengthens the management of the development and utilization of hydropower resources in the Yangtze River basin. Because of the national development strategy and the needs of the national economy and people’s livelihood, the construction of large and medium-sized hydropower projects in the Yangtze River basin shall be scientifically demonstrated and reported to the departments authorized by the State Council or the State Council for approval.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall organize classified rectification or take measures to gradually withdraw from the small hydropower projects built in the Yangtze River basin that do not meet the requirements of ecological protection.

　　Article 24 The state strictly protects the sources of the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River, and establishes national parks and other nature reserves to protect the national ecological security barrier.

　　Twenty-fifth the State Council water administrative departments to strengthen the protection of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River basin. The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin are responsible for delineating the scope of management of rivers and lakes, and announcing it to the public, implementing strict protection of rivers and lakes, and prohibiting illegal occupation of rivers and lakes.

　　Article 26 The State shall exercise special control over the shoreline of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River basin. The National Yangtze River Basin Coordination Mechanism coordinates the departments of natural resources, water administration, ecological environment, housing and urban and rural construction, agriculture and rural areas, transportation, forestry and grassland in the State Council, and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin to delimit the protection scope of river and lake shorelines, formulate protection plans for river and lake shorelines, strictly control the development and construction of shorelines, and promote the rational and efficient utilization of shorelines.

　　It is forbidden to build or expand chemical parks and chemical projects within one kilometer of the coastline of the main tributaries of the Yangtze River.

　　It is forbidden to build, rebuild or expand tailings ponds within three kilometers of the coastline of the main stream of the Yangtze River and within one kilometer of the coastline of important tributaries; However, the reconstruction for the purpose of improving safety and ecological environment protection is excluded.

　　Article 27 The transportation department of the State Council shall, jointly with the departments in charge of natural resources, water administration, ecological environment, agriculture and rural areas, forestry and grassland of the State Council, scientifically delimit the prohibited navigation areas and restricted navigation areas in the important habitats of aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River basin.

　　It is forbidden for ships to sail in the designated no-navigation areas. Because of the national development strategy and the needs of the national economy and the people’s livelihood, sailing in areas where navigation is prohibited in important habitats of aquatic organisms shall be agreed by the competent department of transportation in the State Council in consultation with the competent department of agriculture and rural areas in the State Council, and necessary measures shall be taken to reduce the interference to important aquatic organisms.

　　Strictly restrict the implementation of waterway regulation projects in the red line of ecological protection, nature reserves and important habitats of aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River basin; If rectification is really necessary, it shall be scientifically demonstrated and relevant procedures shall be handled according to law.

　　Article 28 The State establishes a planning and licensing system for sand mining in the Yangtze River basin. Sand mining in the Yangtze River basin shall be licensed by the water administrative department of the State Council, the relevant river basin management institution or the water administrative department of the local people’s government at or above the county level according to law.

　　The relevant river basin management agencies of the water administrative department of the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River basin shall demarcate the sand-mining prohibition area and the sand-mining prohibition period according to law, and strictly control the sand-mining area, the total amount of sand-mining and the number of sand-mining vessels in the sand-mining area. It is forbidden to engage in sand mining activities in the prohibited sand mining areas and sand mining periods in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The water administrative department of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council, organize the relevant local people’s governments in the Yangtze River basin and their relevant departments to carry out joint law enforcement work on illegal sand mining in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Chapter III Protection of Resources

　　Article 29 The protection and utilization of water resources in the Yangtze River Basin shall, according to the comprehensive planning of the basin, give priority to meeting the domestic water needs of urban and rural residents, guarantee the basic ecological water use, and make overall plans for agriculture, industrial water use and shipping.

　　Article 30 The relevant river basin management agencies of the water administrative department of the State Council, in consultation with the people’s government at the provincial level in the Yangtze River basin, shall formulate the inter-provincial river water allocation plan according to law, which shall be implemented after being approved by the department authorized by the State Council or the State Council. The opinions of the relevant departments of the State Council shall be sought for the formulation of the inter-provincial river water allocation scheme in the Yangtze River basin. The water administrative department of the people’s government at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall formulate a water allocation plan for the Yangtze River Basin within its administrative region, which shall be implemented after being approved by the people’s government at the corresponding level.

　　According to the approved water allocation plan, the relevant river basin management organization of the water administrative department of the State Council or the water administrative department of the local people’s government at or above the county level in the Yangtze River basin shall prepare the annual water allocation plan and dispatching plan, and specify the requirements for the control of the flow and water level of relevant river sections and control sections.

　　Article 31 The State shall strengthen the protection of ecological water use in the Yangtze River basin. The water administrative department of the State Council, together with the relevant departments of the State Council, put forward the ecological flow control indicators of the main stream of the Yangtze River, important tributaries and important lake control sections. Other river and lake ecological flow control indicators shall be determined by the water administrative department of the local people’s government at or above the county level in the Yangtze River basin in conjunction with the relevant departments of the people’s government at the corresponding level.

　　The relevant river basin management agencies of the water administrative department of the State Council shall incorporate the ecological water quantity into the annual water dispatching plan, ensure the basic ecological water demand of rivers and lakes, ensure the ecological flow in dry season and fish spawning period, the water quantity and water level of important lakes, and ensure the balance of salt and fresh water in the Yangtze River estuary.

　　Projects such as water conservancy, hydropower and shipping hubs in the main stream of the Yangtze River, important tributaries and the upper reaches of important lakes should incorporate ecological water dispatching into daily operation dispatching procedures, establish a conventional ecological dispatching mechanism, and ensure the ecological flow of rivers and lakes; If the discharge flow does not meet the requirements of ecological discharge, the water administrative department of the people’s government at or above the county level shall put forward rectification measures and supervise the implementation.

　　Article 32 The relevant departments in the State Council and the local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin should take measures to speed up the reinforcement of dangerous reservoirs, promote the construction of dikes and flood storage and detention areas, improve the engineering standards for flood prevention, strengthen the joint dispatching of water projects, carry out river sediment observation and river regime investigation, establish flood control and disaster reduction engineering and non-engineering systems suitable for economic and social development, and improve the overall ability to prevent floods and droughts.

　　Article 33 The State shall conduct scientific demonstration and strengthen control and management of water transfer across the Yangtze River basin. The implementation of water transfer across the Yangtze River basin should give priority to ensuring the water safety and ecological safety of the transfer-out area and its downstream area, and coordinate the water demand of the transfer-out area and the transfer-in area.

　　Article 34 The State strengthens the protection of drinking water sources in the Yangtze River basin. The water administrative department of the State Council shall, jointly with relevant departments of the State Council, formulate a list of drinking water sources in the Yangtze River basin. The water administrative department of the people’s government at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the people’s government at the corresponding level, formulate a list of other drinking water sources in this administrative region.

　　The people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin organize the delineation of drinking water source protection areas, strengthen the protection of drinking water sources and ensure the safety of drinking water.

　　Article 35 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall rationally arrange the water intakes of drinking water sources, formulate emergency plans for drinking water safety emergencies, strengthen the construction of standby emergency drinking water sources, and monitor the water environmental quality of drinking water sources in real time.

　　Article 36 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in Danjiangkou reservoir area and its upstream area shall, in accordance with the management requirements of drinking water source safety protection zone, water quality impact control zone and water conservation ecological construction zone, strengthen the overall protection of landscape, forest, field, lake and grass, enhance the water conservation capacity, and ensure the stable water quality reaching the standard.

　　Article 37 The State strengthens the protection of groundwater resources in the Yangtze River basin. The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall regularly investigate and evaluate the groundwater resources, monitor the groundwater quantity, water level and water environment quality, and take corresponding risk prevention measures to ensure the safety of groundwater resources.

　　Thirty-eighth the State Council water administrative department in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council to determine the Yangtze River basin agricultural and industrial water efficiency targets, strengthen the construction of water metering and monitoring facilities; Improve the water resources demonstration system for planning and construction projects; Strengthen the water quota management of high water consumption industries and key water consumption units, and strictly control the construction of high water consumption projects.

　　Article 39 The State shall make overall plans for the construction of nature reserves in the Yangtze River Basin. The State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin have established national parks, nature reserves, natural parks and other nature reserves in the complete distribution areas of important typical ecosystems, sensitive areas of ecological environment, natural concentrated distribution areas of precious wild animals and plants, important habitats and important natural relics in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Fortieth the State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the law, delimit public welfare forests in important ecological areas and ecologically fragile areas in the Yangtze River Basin and implement strict management. The state strictly protects natural forests in the Yangtze River basin and scientifically delineates key areas for natural forest protection.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin should strengthen the protection of grassland resources in the Yangtze River Basin, and strictly manage the basic grasslands with special functions such as regulating climate, conserving water, conserving soil and water, preventing wind and fixing sand.

　　The competent forestry and grassland authorities in the State Council and the people’s government at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the people’s government at the corresponding level, publish the list of national and local important wetlands and the scope of protection in the Yangtze River Basin according to the needs of different ecological locations, ecosystem functions and biodiversity protection, strengthen the protection and management of wetlands in the Yangtze River Basin, and maintain the ecological functions and biodiversity of wetlands.

　　Article 41 The competent department of agriculture and rural areas of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council and the provincial people’s government of the Yangtze River Basin, establish an evaluation system of aquatic organism integrity index in the Yangtze River Basin, organize the evaluation of aquatic organism integrity in the Yangtze River Basin, and take the results as an important basis for evaluating the overall situation of the Yangtze River Basin ecosystem. The integrity index of aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River basin should be connected with the water environment quality standards in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Article 42 The competent agricultural and rural authorities in the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall formulate a plan for the protection of rare and endangered aquatic wildlife in the Yangtze River Basin, and give priority to the protection of rare and endangered aquatic wildlife in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The state encourages qualified units to carry out research on finless porpoises, baiji, paddlefish, Chinese sturgeon, Yangtze sturgeon, roe carp, Sichuan white turtle, Sichuan and Shaanxi hucho salmon, mullet, tong yu, scaly white turtle, Chinese herring and perch carp in the Yangtze River basin.

　　It is forbidden to breed and put exotic species or other non-native germplasm resources in the open waters of the Yangtze River basin.

　　Chapter IV Prevention and Control of Water Pollution

　　Article 43 The competent department of ecological environment in the State Council and the local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin shall take effective measures to strengthen the prevention and supervision of water pollution in the Yangtze River Basin, so as to prevent, control and reduce water pollution.

　　Forty-fourth the State Council ecological environment department is responsible for the development of water environment quality standards in the Yangtze River basin, and can make supplementary provisions for items not specified in the national water environment quality standards; More stringent regulations can be made on the items that have been stipulated in the national water environment quality standards. The opinions of the relevant departments of the State Council and the relevant provincial people’s governments shall be sought for the formulation of water environment quality standards in the Yangtze River basin. The people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin may formulate local water environment quality standards that are stricter than those in the Yangtze River Basin and report them to the competent department of ecological environment in the State Council for the record.

　　Article 45 The people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall supplement and formulate local standards for the discharge of water pollutants for characteristic industries and endemic pollutants that do not have national standards for the discharge of water pollutants, or for specific water pollution sources or water pollutants that are explicitly required by the state, and report them to the competent department of ecological environment of the State Council for the record.

　　Under any of the following circumstances, the people’s government at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall formulate local water pollutant discharge standards that are stricter than the national water pollutant discharge standards and report them to the competent department of ecological environment of the State Council for the record:

　　(a) the industry is intensive and the water environment problem is outstanding;

　　(two) the existing water pollutant discharge standards can not meet the requirements of water environment quality in the Yangtze River basin under its jurisdiction;

　　(3) The water environment situation in a river basin or region is so complicated that it is impossible to apply uniform standards for the discharge of water pollutants.

　　Forty-sixth people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall formulate the control plan for total phosphorus pollution in their respective administrative areas and organize their implementation. For the main and tributaries of the Yangtze River where the production of phosphate rock and phosphate fertilizer is concentrated, the relevant provincial people’s governments should formulate stricter requirements for the control of total phosphorus emission and effectively control the total amount of total phosphorus emission.

　　Enterprises such as phosphate mining and processing, phosphate fertilizer and phosphorus-containing pesticide manufacturing shall take effective measures to control the total phosphorus emission concentration and total emission in accordance with the requirements of pollutant discharge permit; Monitor the total phosphorus in the sewage outlet and the surrounding environment, and disclose the monitoring information according to law.

　　Article 47 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall co-ordinate the construction of urban and rural centralized sewage treatment facilities and supporting pipe networks in the Yangtze River Basin, ensure their normal operation, and improve the capacity of urban and rural sewage collection and treatment.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall organize the investigation and rectification of the sewage outlets of rivers and lakes in their respective administrative areas, clarify the responsible subjects, and implement classified management.

　　The construction, alteration or expansion of sewage outlets in rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River basin shall be reported to the competent department of ecological environment or the supervision and administration institution of ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin for approval in accordance with relevant state regulations. For water functional areas that fail to meet the water quality objectives, except for the sewage outlets of centralized sewage treatment facilities, new, modified or expanded sewage outlets should be strictly controlled.

　　Article 48 The State shall strengthen the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution in the Yangtze River basin. Agricultural production in the Yangtze River basin should scientifically use agricultural inputs, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, promote the use of organic fertilizers, and scientifically dispose of agricultural wastes such as agricultural films and crop straws.

　　Article 49 It is forbidden to dump, bury, pile up, abandon or treat solid waste within the management scope of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River basin. The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall strengthen joint prevention and control of illegal transfer and dumping of solid waste.

　　Article 50 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall organize investigation and evaluation of key groundwater pollution sources and surrounding groundwater environmental risks such as landfill sites, gas stations, mines, tailings ponds, hazardous waste disposal sites, chemical parks and chemical projects along the Yangtze River, and take corresponding risk prevention and remediation measures.

　　Article 51 The State shall establish a mechanism combining pollution liability insurance for ships transporting dangerous goods in the Yangtze River basin with financial guarantee. The specific measures shall be formulated by the transportation department of the State Council in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council.

　　It is forbidden to transport highly toxic chemicals on the water in the Yangtze River basin and other dangerous chemicals prohibited by the state from being transported by inland rivers. The transportation departments of the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the people’s governments at the corresponding levels, strengthen the control over the transportation of dangerous chemicals in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Chapter V Restoration of Ecological Environment

　　Article 52 The state implements a systematic management of the ecosystem of the Yangtze River basin, which is based on natural restoration and combines natural restoration with artificial restoration. The competent department of natural resources of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council, prepare the ecological environment restoration plan of the Yangtze River Basin, organize the implementation of major ecological environment restoration projects, and promote the ecological environment restoration work in the Yangtze River Basin as a whole.

　　Article 53 The State exercises strict fishing management in key waters of the Yangtze River Basin. A total ban on productive fishing in the aquatic biological reserve in the Yangtze River basin; Within the time limit prescribed by the state, the productive fishing of natural fishery resources will be completely banned in key waters such as the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River, large Tongjiang lakes and the designated areas at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The specific measures shall be formulated by the competent agricultural and rural authorities of the State Council in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council.

　　The competent department of agriculture and rural areas of the State Council, together with the relevant departments of the State Council and the provincial people’s government of the Yangtze River basin, will strengthen the enforcement of the ban on fishing in the Yangtze River basin, and severely investigate and deal with fishing behaviors that destroy fishery resources and ecological environment, such as electric fish, poisonous fish and fried fish.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state, do a good job in the compensation, production change and social security of fishermen who have retired from key waters in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Measures for the administration of fishing bans and restrictions in other waters of the Yangtze River Basin shall be formulated by local people’s governments at or above the county level.

　　Article 54 The water administrative department of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council, formulate and organize the implementation of the restoration scheme for the connectivity of rivers and lakes in the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River, and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin shall formulate and organize the implementation of the restoration scheme for the connectivity of rivers and lakes in their respective administrative areas, so as to gradually improve the connectivity of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River Basin, restore the ecological flow of rivers and lakes, and maintain the ecological functions of rivers and lakes.

　　Article 55 The National Yangtze River Basin Coordination Mechanism shall coordinate and coordinate the State Council’s departments of natural resources, water administration, ecological environment, housing and urban and rural construction, agriculture and rural areas, transportation, forestry and grassland, and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin to formulate norms for the shoreline restoration of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River Basin and determine the shoreline restoration indicators.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the requirements of the protection planning, restoration norms and indicators of the river and lake shoreline in the Yangtze River Basin, formulate and organize the implementation of the river and lake shoreline restoration plan to ensure the proportion of natural coastline and restore the ecological functions of the river and lake shoreline.

　　It is forbidden to illegally use or occupy the coastline of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Article 56 The relevant departments of the State Council, together with the relevant provincial people’s governments in the Yangtze River Basin, will strengthen the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the water-level fluctuation zones in key reservoir areas such as the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and Danjiangkou Reservoir Area, implement returning farmland to forests and grasslands according to local conditions, prohibit the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, scientifically regulate the water level of reservoirs, strengthen the water and soil conservation and the prevention and control of geological disasters in the reservoir areas, and ensure the good ecological functions of the water-level fluctuation zones.

　　Article 57 The competent forestry and grassland department of the local people’s government at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin is responsible for organizing and implementing the restoration plan of forests, grasslands and wetlands in the Yangtze River Basin, scientifically promoting the restoration of forests, grasslands and wetlands, and intensifying the restoration of degraded natural forests, grasslands and damaged wetlands.

　　Article 58 The State shall increase its support for ecological environment restoration in key lakes such as Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Chaohu Lake and Dianchi Lake.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall organize the restoration of the ecological environment of eutrophic lakes, and take comprehensive measures such as adjusting the scale of industrial layout, implementing unified dispatching of controlled water projects, ecological water replenishment, and connecting rivers and lakes to improve and restore the quality and function of lake ecosystems; For lakes where the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus seriously exceeds the standard, measures should be taken to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizers, prohibit the use of phosphorus-containing detergents, and comprehensively clean up feeding and fertilizing.

　　Article 59 The competent departments of forestry, grassland, agriculture and rural areas in the State Council shall formulate restoration plans and action plans for the wild animals and plants in the Yangtze River basin, which are rapidly declining or extremely endangered, and the habitats, natural concentrated distribution areas and broken typical ecosystems, build ex-situ protection facilities, establish a gene bank of wild animal and plant genetic resources, and carry out rescue restoration.

　　Ecological environment restoration and other protective measures should be implemented in important habitats such as spawning grounds, feeding grounds, wintering grounds and migration routes of aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River basin. Water-related projects that obstruct the migration of aquatic organisms such as fish should take various measures, such as building fish-crossing facilities, connecting rivers and lakes, ecological dispatching, irrigating rivers and receiving seedlings, gene preservation, proliferation and release, artificial breeding and so on, in combination with the actual situation, so as to fully meet the ecological requirements of aquatic organisms.

　　Article 60 The water administrative department of the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s government at the mouth of the Yangtze River, formulate and implement the ecological environment restoration and other protection measures at the mouth of the Yangtze River in accordance with the requirements of land-sea coordination and river-sea linkage, strengthen the comprehensive monitoring of water, sand, salt, tidal flat and biological population, take effective measures to prevent seawater intrusion and backflow, and maintain the good ecological function of the mouth of the Yangtze River.

　　Article 61 Local people’s governments at or above the county level shall take measures to prevent and control soil erosion in key prevention areas and key control areas of the Yangtze River Basin. The soil erosion plots within the red line of ecological protection are mainly natural restoration, and returning farmland to forests, grasslands and wetlands in a planned way according to regulations; Permanent basic farmland included in the core protection area of nature reserves shall be withdrawn in an orderly manner according to law and replenished.

　　It is forbidden to carry out production and construction activities that may cause soil erosion in areas with serious soil erosion and fragile ecology in the Yangtze River Basin. If it is really necessary to build because of the national development strategy and the national economy and people’s livelihood, it shall be scientifically demonstrated and the examination and approval procedures shall be handled according to law.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin should take comprehensive control measures to the rocky desertification land according to local conditions, repair the ecological system and prevent the spread of rocky desertification.

　　Article 62 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin should take measures such as eliminating hidden dangers of geological disasters, land reclamation, restoring vegetation, and preventing and controlling pollution according to local conditions, speed up the restoration of the ecological environment of mines left over from history, strengthen the supervision and management of mines under construction and operation, and urge the mining right holders to earnestly fulfill their responsibilities of preventing and controlling mine pollution and restoring the ecological environment.

　　Article 63 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin shall, according to local conditions, support the implementation of ecological environment restoration and other protective measures in the source and upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin in terms of projects, funds, talents and management, so as to enhance the ability of implementing ecological environment restoration and other protective measures in the ecologically fragile areas of the Yangtze River Basin.

　　In accordance with the principles of policy support, enterprise and social participation and market-oriented operation, the state encourages social capital to invest in ecological environment restoration in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Chapter VI Green Development

　　Article 64 The relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin shall adjust the industrial structure, optimize the industrial layout and promote the green development of the Yangtze River Basin in accordance with the requirements of the Yangtze River Basin development plan and the land and space planning.

　　Article 65 The local people’s governments at all levels in the State Council and the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall jointly promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and the new urbanization strategy, make overall plans for urban and rural infrastructure construction and industrial development, establish and improve a basic public service system with universal coverage, inclusive sharing and urban-rural integration, and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 66 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall promote the upgrading and transformation of industries such as steel, petroleum, chemicals, non-ferrous metals, building materials and ships, and raise the level of technology and equipment; Promote the clean transformation of enterprises such as papermaking, tanning, electroplating, printing and dyeing, non-ferrous metals, pesticides, nitrogen fertilizer, coking and raw material medicine manufacturing. Enterprises should reduce resource consumption and pollutant emissions through technological innovation.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall take measures to speed up the relocation and transformation of dangerous chemicals production enterprises in key areas.

　　Article 67 The relevant departments of the State Council shall, jointly with the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River Basin, establish an assessment mechanism for the green development of development zones, and organize regular assessments on the conservation and intensive utilization of resources and energy and the protection of ecological environment in various development zones.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall optimize and adjust the industrial products, energy conservation and emission reduction measures in the Development Zone according to the evaluation results.

　　Article 68 The State encourages and supports the implementation of water-saving technological transformation in key industries and key water users in the Yangtze River basin to improve the efficiency of water resources utilization.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin should strengthen the construction of water-saving cities and water-saving parks, promote the development of water-saving industries and enterprises, and accelerate the construction of a sponge city with natural accumulation, natural infiltration and natural purification of rainwater.

　　Article 69 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the requirements of green development, make overall planning, construction and management, improve the quality of urban and rural human settlements, and build beautiful towns and beautiful countryside.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall organize and implement toilet renovation according to local conditions in accordance with the principles of ecology, environmental protection, economy and practicality.

　　The relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall strengthen the management of the use of building materials in new urban areas and various development zones, encourage the use of energy-saving and environmental-friendly building materials with high performance, and build underground utility tunnel and pipe networks.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall build an information platform for the comprehensive utilization of waste debris, strengthen the management of the collection, removal and centralized stacking of waste debris from production and construction activities, and encourage the comprehensive utilization.

　　Article 70 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall compile and organize the implementation of the tidal flat planning of aquaculture waters, rationally delimit the prohibited areas, restricted areas and aquaculture areas, and scientifically determine the scale and density of aquaculture; Strengthen the management of aquaculture inputs, guide and standardize aquaculture and proliferation activities.

　　Article 71 The State shall strengthen the construction of a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation system in the Yangtze River basin, improve the water transport infrastructure such as ports and waterways, promote the interconnection of transportation facilities, realize the organic connection between land and water, and realize the direct intermodal transport between rivers and seas, so as to enhance the function of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River.

　　Article 72 The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall co-ordinate the construction of facilities for receiving, transporting and disposing pollutants from ships and liquefied natural gas filling stations from ships, formulate plans for the construction and renovation of port shore power facilities and ship power receiving facilities, and organize their implementation. Ships that have the conditions to use shore power should use shore power in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state, except those that use clean energy.

　　Article 73 the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall provide financial support or policy support for the upgrading and reconstruction of ports, waterways and ships in the Yangtze River Basin, the construction of clean energy or new energy power ships such as liquefied natural gas power ships, and the green design of ports in accordance with regulations.

　　The State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin provide financial subsidies, preferential electricity prices and other policy support for the transformation and use of port shore power facilities and ship power receiving facilities in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 74 The local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin shall strengthen publicity and education on green consumption of urban and rural residents, and take effective measures to support and guide residents’ green consumption.

　　The local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin, in accordance with the principles of systematic promotion, extensive participation, focusing on key points and classified policies, have taken measures such as recovering deposits, restricting the use of plastic products that are easy to pollute and are not easy to degrade, green design, and developing public transportation to promote a simple, moderate, green and low-carbon lifestyle.

　　Chapter VII Guarantee and Supervision

　　Seventy-fifth the State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin should increase financial input for the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The people’s governments at the provincial level in the State Council and the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the principle of the division of financial powers and expenditure responsibilities between the central and local governments, arrange special funds for the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin. The competent department of natural resources in the State Council shall, jointly with the relevant departments of finance and ecological environment in the State Council, formulate policies and measures to rationally use social funds to promote the restoration of ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin.

　　The state encourages and supports scientific and technological research, development, popularization and application in the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin.

　　The state encourages financial institutions to develop green credit, green bonds, green insurance and other financial products to provide financial support for ecological environment protection and green development in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Article 76 The state establishes a compensation system for ecological protection in the Yangtze River basin.

　　The state has increased financial transfer payments to compensate important areas with ecological functions such as the source of the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River and water conservation areas in the upper reaches. The specific measures shall be formulated by the finance department of the State Council in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council.

　　The state encourages the local people’s governments in the upper and lower reaches, the left and right banks and the main tributaries of the Yangtze River basin to carry out compensation for horizontal ecological protection.

　　The state encourages social funds to establish a market-oriented compensation fund for ecological protection in the Yangtze River basin; Encourage relevant subjects to carry out ecological protection compensation by means of voluntary consultation.

　　Article 77 The state strengthens the construction of judicial guarantee in the Yangtze River basin and encourages relevant units to provide legal services for the protection of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin.

　　Administrative law enforcement organs, people’s courts and people’s procuratorates at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in the process of investigating and handling illegal acts of Yangtze River protection or related cases according to law, find suspected criminal acts, and shall transfer the criminal clues to the organs with investigation and investigation powers.

　　Article 78 The state practices the responsibility system for ecological environment protection in the Yangtze River basin and the assessment and evaluation system. The people’s government at a higher level shall assess the completion of the ecological environment protection and restoration objectives of the people’s government at a lower level.

　　Article 79 Relevant departments of the State Council and local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Law and the division of responsibilities, supervise and inspect all kinds of protection, development and construction activities in the Yangtze River Basin, and investigate and punish illegal acts such as destroying natural resources, polluting the environment and damaging the ecosystem of the Yangtze River Basin according to law.

　　Citizens, legal persons and unincorporated organizations have the right to obtain relevant information on the protection of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin according to law, and report and accuse illegal acts such as destroying natural resources, polluting the environment in the Yangtze River basin and damaging the ecosystem in the Yangtze River basin.

　　The relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall disclose the information related to the ecological environment protection in the Yangtze River Basin according to law, improve the procedures for public participation, and provide convenience for citizens, legal persons and unincorporated organizations to participate in and supervise the ecological environment protection in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 80 The relevant departments of the State Council and the local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River Basin and their relevant departments shall jointly enforce the law on cross-administrative areas, ecologically sensitive areas, areas with high incidence of ecological and environmental violations and major illegal cases in the Yangtze River Basin.

　　Article 81 The relevant departments of the State Council and the people’s governments at the provincial level in the Yangtze River basin may interview the principal responsible persons of the local people’s governments at or above the county level and their relevant departments in areas where the Yangtze River protection work is ineffective, the problems are prominent and the masses are concentrated, and ask them to take measures for timely rectification.

　　Eighty-second the State Council should regularly report to the NPC Standing Committee on the ecological environment and the protection and restoration of the Yangtze River basin.

　　The local people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River Basin shall regularly report to the people’s congresses at the corresponding levels or their standing committees on the protection and restoration of the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin by the people’s governments at the corresponding levels.

　　Chapter VIII Legal Liability

　　Article 83 If the relevant departments in the State Council and the local people’s governments at all levels in the Yangtze River valley and their relevant departments violate the provisions of this Law and commit any of the following acts, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be given a warning, demerit, serious demerit or demotion according to law; If serious consequences are caused, he shall be dismissed or expelled, and the main person in charge shall take the blame and resign:

　　(a) does not meet the requirements of administrative licensing, administrative licensing;

　　(two) according to the law should be ordered to suspend business, closure and other decisions have not been made;

　　(three) found illegal acts or received a report not to investigate and deal with according to law;

　　(four) other dereliction of duty, abuse of power, corruption.

　　Article 84 Anyone who violates the provisions of this Law and commits any of the following acts shall be ordered by the relevant competent department to stop the illegal act, given a warning and fined between 10,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan according to the division of responsibilities; If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan shall be imposed:

　　(a) the ship is sailing in the area where navigation is prohibited;

　　(2) Sailing in areas where navigation is prohibited in important habitats of aquatic organisms with consent, and failing to take necessary measures to reduce the interference to important aquatic organisms;

　　(three) water conservancy, hydropower, shipping hub and other projects have not included ecological water dispatching in the daily operation and dispatching procedures;

　　(four) the ship with the conditions for the use of shore power fails to use shore power in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state.

　　Article 85 Anyone who, in violation of the provisions of this Law, cultivates or releases exotic species or other non-native germplasm resources in the open waters of the Yangtze River Basin shall be ordered by the competent agricultural and rural departments of the people’s governments at or above the county level to catch them back within a time limit and be fined not more than 100,000 yuan; If serious consequences are caused, a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan shall be imposed; If it fails to be recaptured within the time limit, the competent department of agriculture and rural affairs of the relevant people’s government shall recapture it or take measures to reduce the negative impact, and the expenses required shall be borne by the violator.

　　Article 86 Anyone who, in violation of the provisions of this Law, engages in productive fishing in the aquatic life protection zone in the Yangtze River basin, or engages in productive fishing of natural fishery resources during the fishing ban period in key waters such as the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River, large Tongjiang lakes, and areas specified at the mouth of the Yangtze River, shall be confiscated by the competent agricultural and rural departments of the people’s governments at or above the county level, as well as fishing boats, fishing gear and other tools used for illegal activities, and shall be fined not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan; Fishing by electric fish, poisonous fish, fried fish, etc., or if there are other serious circumstances, a fine of not less than 50 thousand yuan but not more than 500 thousand yuan shall be imposed.

　　Where the catch specified in the preceding paragraph is purchased, processed or sold, the agricultural and rural areas, market supervision and management departments of the people’s government at or above the county level shall, in accordance with the division of responsibilities, confiscate the catch and its products and illegal income, and impose a fine of not less than ten times but not more than twenty times the value of the goods; If the circumstances are serious, the relevant production and business license shall be revoked or ordered to close down.

　　Article 87 Whoever, in violation of the provisions of this Law, illegally encroaches on the waters of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River basin, or illegally uses or occupies the shoreline of rivers and lakes, shall be ordered by the water administrative department, natural resources department and other competent departments of the people’s government at or above the county level to stop the illegal act, dismantle it within a time limit and restore it to its original state. The expenses incurred shall be borne by the violator, the illegal income shall be confiscated and a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan shall be imposed.

　　Article 88 Anyone who violates the provisions of this Law and commits any of the following acts shall be ordered by the competent department of ecological environment and natural resources of the people’s government at or above the county level to stop the illegal act, dismantle it within a time limit and restore it to its original state. The expenses incurred shall be borne by the violator, the illegal income shall be confiscated, and a fine of not less than 500,000 yuan but not more than 5 million yuan shall be imposed, and a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan shall be imposed on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons. If the circumstances are serious, it shall be reported to the people’s government with the right of approval and ordered to close down:

　　(1) Building or expanding chemical parks and chemical projects within one kilometer of the coastline of the main tributaries of the Yangtze River;

　　(two) new construction, renovation and expansion of tailings ponds within three kilometers of the coastline of the main stream of the Yangtze River and one kilometer of the coastline of important tributaries;

　　(three) production and construction activities in violation of the provisions of the ecological environment access list.

　　Article 89 Where an enterprise in the Yangtze River valley, such as phosphate mining and processing, phosphate fertilizer and phosphorus-containing pesticide manufacturing, violates the provisions of this Law and discharges phosphorus-containing water pollutants in excess of the discharge standards or total control targets, the competent department of ecology and environment of the people’s government at or above the county level shall order it to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 2 million yuan, and impose a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel; If the circumstances are serious, it shall be ordered to suspend production for rectification, or it shall be ordered to close down after being approved by the people’s government with the right of approval.

　　Article 90 Whoever, in violation of the provisions of this Law, transports highly toxic chemicals and other dangerous chemicals prohibited by the state from being transported by inland rivers on the Yangtze River basin shall be ordered by the transportation department of the people’s government at or above the county level or the maritime administrative agency to make corrections, confiscate the illegal income, and impose a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 2 million yuan, and impose a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel; If the circumstances are serious, it shall be ordered to suspend business for rectification or revoke the relevant license.

　　Article 91 Anyone who, in violation of the provisions of this Law, engages in sand mining activities in the Yangtze River basin without obtaining a license according to law, or engages in sand mining activities in the sand mining prohibition area and during the sand mining prohibition period, shall be ordered by the relevant river basin management agency of the the State Council water administrative department or the water administrative department of the local people’s government at or above the county level to stop the illegal act, confiscate the illegal income and the vessels, equipment and tools used for illegal activities, and impose a fine of not less than two times but not more than twenty times the value of the goods; If the value of the goods is less than 100,000 yuan, a fine of more than 200,000 yuan and less than 2 million yuan shall be imposed; If the river sand mining license has been obtained, the river sand mining license shall be revoked.

　　Article 92 Where this Law does not provide for administrative penalties for illegal acts such as destroying natural resources, polluting the environment and damaging the ecosystem of the Yangtze River Basin, the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations shall apply.

　　Article 93 The infringer shall bear the tort liability if he pollutes the environment and destroys the ecology of the Yangtze River basin and causes damage to others.

　　If the violation of state regulations causes damage to the ecological environment of the Yangtze River basin, the state-stipulated organ or the organization prescribed by law has the right to request the infringer to bear the responsibility of repair, compensate the losses and related expenses.

　　Article 94 Whoever violates the provisions of this Law and constitutes a crime shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

　　Chapter IX Supplementary Provisions

　　Article 95 The meanings of the following terms in this Law:

　　(1) The term "main stream of the Yangtze River" as mentioned in this Law refers to the main reach of the Yangtze River from its source to its mouth, which flows through Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai;

　　(2) Tributaries of the Yangtze River mentioned in this Law refer to rivers that directly or indirectly flow into the main stream of the Yangtze River, and tributaries can be divided into first-class tributaries and second-class tributaries, etc.

　　(3) The important tributaries of the Yangtze River mentioned in this Law refer to tributaries with a basin area of over 10,000 square kilometers, among which the first-class tributaries with a basin area of over 80,000 square kilometers include Yalong River, Minjiang River, Jialing River, Wujiang River, Xiangjiang River, Yuanjiang River, Hanjiang River and Ganjiang River.

　　Article 96 This Law shall come into force as of March 1, 2021.

　　(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 26th)

　　On September 19th, in Qixing Road, Siming District, Xiamen, the municipal garden staff cleaned up the trees that were blown down by the strong wind. The 14th typhoon "Moranti" this year had a serious impact on Xiamen, Fujian. At present, all walks of life in Xiamen are doing their best to restore the order of production and life after the disaster. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Zeng Demeng)

　　Xinhua News Agency, Xiamen, September 21st　Title: Gather the majestic power to rebuild the homeland — — On-the-spot report of disaster relief and reconstruction in Xiamen after Typhoon Moranti landed.

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Su Jie, Shang Hao and Fu Min.

　　The wind is raging and the rain is pouring. The Mid-Autumn Festival that just passed is an unforgettable day for everyone in Xiamen. In the early morning of 15th, the strongest typhoon "Moranti" that landed in China this year and the strongest typhoon that landed in southern Fujian since the founding of New China landed in Xiamen, with the maximum wind force reaching 17.

　　Large-scale power and water cuts, 650,000 street trees fell, 566 enterprises were affected, 17,907 houses collapsed, and the affected area of crops was 105,000 mu … … The menacing transit of "Moranti" has left Xiamen, known as the "Garden City", devastated.

　　In the face of disaster, a disaster relief and reconstruction campaign started in Xiamen.

　　Xiamen strength: unite as one to help the disaster.

　　Walking into the field command post of a detachment of armed police temporarily located in Xiamen Yifu Middle School, armed police soldiers came in and out of the clinic. Since the typhoon disaster relief began on the 15th, the soldiers started at 7 o’clock every day, and sometimes they could not be withdrawn until 12 o’clock in the evening. In addition, the alternate test of pouring rain and sun exposure made many soldiers ill. However, most soldiers chose to return to the front line quickly after a short rest and treatment.

　　"Minor injuries can’t go down the line of fire, and everything that can go up must go up." De-qiang huang, deputy director of the political department of the detachment, is simple but hit the floor.

　　The word "the loveliest person" covers such a wide range. Immediately after the typhoon, Xiamen City set up a leading group for recovery and reconstruction with the mayor as the leader, and all districts and departments gave up the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and devoted themselves to disaster relief and reconstruction.

　　Volunteer team, employees of enterprises and institutions, municipal sanitation workers, community security, Taiwan compatriots … … In the face of disasters, countless people rushed to the front line of disaster relief. They joined hands side by side and Qi Xin worked together to rebuild their homes.

　　In the community, in the streets and in the parks, these "loveliest people" wait and wait, starting with a branch and a brick, doing what they can to help Xiamen restore its former beauty.

　　"The body is very tired, but the spirit is happy. Qi Xin works together to contribute to the homeland, and the strength of the team is strong. " Ye Caiyun, a 64-year-old volunteer said.

　　Xiamen speed: let the home reappear as soon as possible.

　　"Before, I loved your trees; Yesterday, I hurt your devastation; Today, I am gratified by your rapid recovery. " — — This sentence, which has been circulated in Xiamen’s circle of friends recently, expresses their truest feelings.

　　The typhoon landed in Xiamen on the 15th and the damage was amazing. What makes Xiamen people unforgettable is that the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction in just a few days have made the city very different.

　　622,000 households lost power due to the disaster, and nearly 1.45 million households stopped water supply due to the disaster — — This is the power of Typhoon Moranti in Xiamen. The disaster is the order, and it is urgent to restore the power supply and water supply for production and life. After a comprehensive investigation, thousands of people in Xiamen have invested in the first line of hydropower repair.

　　"It’s a waste of time to go down and up again and again. It doesn’t matter if we get a little rain. I hope to restore power supply as soon as possible." Zhang Delu, head of the emergency repair team of Xiamen Power Supply Bureau, who has been in the rain for more than 30 hours, said.

　　Their speed is amazing: on the 15th, Xiamen realized the restoration of all water supply in two districts of the island and the restoration of electricity consumption for 68,700 households. By the 20th, all the water supply households in the city had been restored due to the disaster, and 98% of the power supply households had been restored.

　　At this speed, there are also the clearing of fallen trees and the dredging of roads in urban areas. The road was cleared on the 15th, basically cleared on the 16th, and the main road was reopened to traffic on the 17th … … Walking on the streets of Xiamen, there are basically no fallen street trees on the main and secondary roads. Only the trees with broken branches remind people in the past that this is a city that has just been ravaged by the strongest typhoon since 1949.

　　Xiamen’s great love: the most beautiful thing in Xiamen is people.

　　In Xiamen after the typhoon, a team of armed police disaster relief officers and soldiers took on the task of clearing obstacles on the road. They put their satchels neatly on the side of the road and turned to work. It was not until the end of the mission in the afternoon that they found that there was a red blessing bag on each officer’s satchel, and each bag contained two boiled eggs.

　　"When the disaster came, I saw a figure in camouflage, and I knew it was our people’s soldiers." — — A citizen quietly put down his blessing bag with his child and left such a letter.

　　"Many community cadres, volunteers and citizens have joined us and given us a lot of support, which is an incentive and encouragement for our soldiers." Chen Yanghang, an armed police soldier, said.

　　From 15th to 20th, similar stories were repeated in Xiamen. Small blessing bags become a window to observe the relationship between people, and warm currents flow in the city.

　　Residents living on the ground floor turn on the tap and let residents living upstairs receive water for free; Neighbors form a "help group" to help empty nesters transport water; The old house was flooded, and all the neighbors came to help move things … … Among the citizens, warm stories continue to be staged, and people love each other and watch each other in the face of disasters.

　　"Even neighbors who don’t know each other are familiar with each other, nodding and smiling at each other, which makes people feel warm." Xu Huichao, a citizen of Xiamen, said, "The most beautiful thing in beautiful Xiamen is people."

[Original Truck House] Beijing’s 17.5-meter-long Banlalutong is inevitably charged at a high speed. After the Spring Festival, this news spread among card friends.

What is the specific situation? We made a detailed understanding to the informed card friends.

● From February 25th. The 17.5-meter free Lalutong has become history.

According to reports, first of all, someone sent an "internal document" on WeChat on the 234th of last month, saying that since February 25th, the 17.5-meter-long scooter Lalutong will no longer be exempted from high-speed tolls, and at that time, it was still lucky, saying that "it will be known in two days".

In the early morning of 26th, one day after the legend, the policy was formally implemented. When the policy changed, everyone responded in time, and it was understandable to pay for the expressway. At that time, the truck drivers who had been running this line all the year round had already negotiated with the cargo owners, and each of them took part in the expressway fee and calmly opened the toll-paying crossing mode.

However, at this time, there have been some "special situations".

"It’s not as simple as unified payment. Now the green-pass scooter running in Beijing is too messy. Some people publicly stated in various WeChat groups that they only need 1,500 yuan to find a channel to avoid high-speed fees, and there are really successful cases."

According to informed card friends, as soon as the news came out, the shipper who was willing to bear part of the high-speed fee began to hesitate. Since it can be solved with 1,500 yuan, why do you have to bear the toll of thousands or even tens of thousands? It seems that there is no problem to think like this from the perspective of the shipper.

However, the so-called toll-free of 1,500 yuan is actually an operation that some speculators forge the length of a 17.5-meter conductor into 16 meters by illegal means by looking for scalpers and instigating truck drivers to find someone to modify the driver’s license information. As long as they meet the staff when they get off the expressway, they can also let some vehicles get away with it.

It is not advisable to change a fake license and set a license. The success of evasion depends on luck, and the behavior belongs to deck and forged documents. Once the driver is found, he will face legal risks such as 12 points deduction, revocation of driver’s license, detention and fine. However, the clever ones who have tasted the sweetness of getting away with the fees will seriously disrupt the market environment and make drivers unwilling to find scalpers or unable to get away with it miserable.

Take the route from Yunnan to Beijing as an example. A truckload of fruits and vegetables needs a toll of 7,000 yuan to transport from Kunming to Beijing, and it needs a high-speed fee of over 10,000 yuan to start from Ruili. The truck driver who evades the toll claims to the owner that the toll can be exempted. Naturally, the owner is suspicious and unwilling to bear the cost. Once the "free operation" fails, he will still lose money.

"In fact, we have no problem with the high-speed fee, not to mention the 17.5-meter board. Even if all models are unavoidable, everyone is happy to accept it." A green pass driver told us.

In the past 20 years, he has seen too many different definitions of vegetables and fruits in the Green Link catalogue from different toll stations, and he has also experienced many times about whether to shuffle and wrangle for free, how to prove that the doll dish is Chinese cabbage, how to distinguish between pineapple and pineapple, and which one can be avoided from peach and nectarine. In summer, it is necessary to pay attention to moisturizing peanuts and not drying them at the toll station … One by one, truck drivers are tired of coping, but it is even more worry-free.

In fact, 17.5 meters, as a large transport vehicle, has been criticized for a long time in the general goods and green pass markets. As early as the first two years, the policy that the 17.5-meter Milla Green Link is not free has been started in most areas of the country. Now, with the promulgation and implementation of this ban in Beijing, the 17.5-meter free green link will completely become history.

Card friends generally don’t have any complaints about the implementation of the policy, but they just hope to strengthen the law enforcement and supervision, so as not to let speculators take advantage of the loopholes and work together to realize the fair implementation of the policy and a smooth transition.

● 　17.5 Will Milla Green Link be eliminated quickly?

17.5 Milla Green Link is free of charge. Will the 13-meter car quickly replace this market? Not really, it seems.

It is understood that at present, the vegetables shipped to Beijing by Yunnan, Guangxi and other provinces are basically 17.5-meter large-scale models, with two main advantages:

The first is to pack more. Take the transportation of vegetables as an example. A 17.5-meter board can hold 2,000 pieces normally. If a 13-meter car is used, it will probably hold more than 600 pieces. The loading capacity of two cars is not as much as that of one car. If you use a 13-meter car, even if it is free of high-speed charges, the two cars will probably have to pay 27 thousand freight. If you use a big board, you can pull it back at a price acceptable to both drivers and shippers, plus more than 20 thousand high-speed charges.

Secondly, the bad fruit rate is low. When transported by 17.5 meters vehicles, the number of loading floors is low, generally six or seven boxes are enough. If 13 meters is used, at least 13 boxes are needed, the rate of bad fruit will inevitably increase and the loss of goods will increase.

Therefore, even if the toll-unavoidable mode is started, as long as the 17.5-meter-long pallet truck can still get on the road and get off the highway, there is a high probability that many shippers will choose this model for transportation. Unless the road of 17.5-meter-long Milla Lutong is completely blocked, there will still be a certain market for the 17.5-meter-long pallet truck to transport Lutong, and the road to governance still needs to continue.

● 　Summary of the article

Regarding the management of 17.5-meter big board trucks, it can be said that it has been shouted for more than ten years. Although the chaos of violating the 17.5-meter regulations still exists, it is tightening step by step from the perspective of national policies. I believe that it will not be long before the 17.5-meter big board trucks will return to the large-scale transportation track, and the freight market will be further regulated.

Do you encounter many cases of 17.5-meter-long planks transporting green links on the road? Welcome to leave a message at the bottom of the article.

　　Sino-Singapore Finance May 10th On the 10th, the National Development and Reform Commission held a press conference to introduce the development plan of bio-economy in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Wang Xiang, deputy director of the High-tech Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the Plan foresees the development goal in 2035: the comprehensive strength of bio-economy is in the forefront of the world, basically forming a new development situation with leading technology level, strong industrial strength, extensive integration and application, strong resource guarantee, controllable security risks and complete institutional system.

　　Wang Xiang said that this Plan is China’s first five-year plan for bio-economy. In the process of compiling, four requirements were emphasized.

　　The first is to strengthen the top-level design. China is one of the countries with the richest biological resources in the world, with complete categories and systems of bio-industry, which has favorable conditions for accelerating the development of bio-economy, but the top-level design and overall planning of bio-economic development is still blank. Therefore, the Plan adheres to the systematic concept, the top-level design, the forward-looking layout and the overall implementation, pays attention to the coordinated development of the supply side and the demand side of the bio-economy, and based on the protection, development, allocation and use of biological resources, systematically promotes the extensive penetration of life sciences and biotechnology into the fields of medicine, health, agriculture, energy and environmental protection of the national economy, accelerates the construction of a modern bio-industrial system, and lays a solid foundation for the rapid and healthy development of bio-economy.

　　The second is to support the national strategy. China is in a new development stage of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and marching towards the goal of the second century. In this important strategic opportunity period, the development of bio-economy and the global biotechnology revolution and industrial transformation wave have formed a major historical intersection. To this end, the Plan is based on the new development stage, implements the new development concept, constructs a new development pattern, takes bio-economy as an important part of China’s science and technology economic strategy in the coming period, provides new solutions to major challenges such as life and health, climate change, resource and energy security, and food security, and provides strong support for building a higher level of healthy China, beautiful China and safe China.

　　The third is to create a good environment. Life science and biotechnology have fast updating speed and short iteration period, which puts forward new requirements for related technology review and product access policies. To this end, the "Planning" proposes to follow the development law of biotechnology, persist in encouraging innovation, tolerance and prudence, and make concerted efforts, continuously deepen reforms in terms of industry access, market application, and intellectual property rights, build a good innovation ecology, and accelerate the formation of a policy environment conducive to the innovation and development of bio-economy.

　　The fourth is to coordinate development and security. Biosafety has generally become an important part of the security system of big countries. To this end, the Plan adheres to the overall national security concept, strengthens the bottom line thinking, coordinates bio-economic development and bio-security guarantee, and strives to prevent and respond to bio-security risks that may affect bio-economic development.

　　Wang Xiang introduced that the "Planning" has formulated the development goals during the "14 th Five-Year Plan" period, which can be summarized as "five new ones": the total scale of bio-economy has reached a new level, the proportion of economic added value in GDP has steadily increased, and the number of enterprises with annual operating income of more than 10 billion yuan has increased significantly; The comprehensive strength of biotechnology has been improved, the investment intensity of bio-industry research and development has been significantly improved, and the number and influence of regional innovative highlands and industrial clusters have been significantly improved; The integrated development of bio-industry has achieved a new leap, and biotechnology and bio-industry have more widely benefited people’s health, food security, energy security, rural revitalization and green development; The biosafety guarantee capability has reached a new level, and a national-led, multi-dimensional, smooth mechanism and solid foundation biosafety risk prevention and control and governance system has been basically established; The policy environment in the biological field has opened up a new situation, the institutional mechanism and institutional environment are more superior, the market transactions of biotechnology are more active, and the institutional reforms such as review and approval, market access, product pricing, market supervision and property rights protection have continued to deepen.

　　Wang Xiang also said that the Plan defined the specific tasks of bio-economic development, focusing on five aspects.

　　First, vigorously consolidate the foundation of bio-economic innovation, insist on giving full play to the basic role of innovation in bio-economic development, strengthen market orientation and demand traction, accelerate the improvement of bio-technological innovation ability, cultivate and expand innovative subjects with strong competitiveness, optimize regional layout, deepen bio-economic innovation cooperation, and accelerate the development of bio-economic innovation.

　　The second is to cultivate and expand the pillar industries of bio-economy, accelerate the widespread empowerment of health, agriculture, energy, environmental protection, information and other industries by biotechnology, promote the development of medical health, bio-agriculture, bio-energy and bio-environmental protection, bio-information industries, cultivate and develop new industries, new formats and new models, expand the pilot demonstration of bio-technology benefiting people, and comprehensively improve the diversification level of bio-industries.

　　Third, actively promote the protection and utilization of biological resources, strengthen the protection, development and comprehensive utilization of biological resources, improve the development and utilization system of biological resources, standardize the safe sharing of biological resources, form a long-term mechanism for the safe protection, effective development and scientific utilization of biological resources, improve the level of institutionalization, standardization and informatization, and provide basic guarantee for the development of medicine, agriculture, energy and environmental protection.

　　The fourth is to speed up the construction of a biosafety guarantee system, implement the overall national security concept, implement the biosafety law, coordinate development and safety, improve the biosafety risk prevention and control system, enhance the risk prevention and control and disposal ability to deal with major epidemics and biosafety incidents, and effectively build a national biosafety barrier.

　　Fifth, efforts should be made to optimize the policy environment in the biological field, follow the development law of biotechnology, persist in encouraging innovation, tolerance and prudence, and make concerted efforts, continue to deepen reforms in technological innovation, industry supervision, market application, international cooperation and other fields, increase investment in resources such as capital, technology and talents, build an institutional framework that is in line with international standards, strengthen policies to try first, and accelerate the formation of a policy environment conducive to the innovation and development of bio-economy.

　　In addition, the Plan focuses on the higher-level needs of the people in the fields of medicine, food, beauty and safety, and puts forward four key development areas: biomedicine, bio-agriculture, biomass substitution and bio-safety, as well as the improvement of innovation ability, the benefit of biomedical technology, the improvement of modern seed industry, the demonstration of bioenergy and environmental protection industry, the integration and application of biotechnology and information technology, the preservation and development of biological resources, and the bio-economic pilot zone.

　　Wang Xiang introduced the safeguard measures for the implementation of the Plan, focusing on three aspects.

　　The first is to strengthen organizational leadership. To implement the deployment of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission took the lead in strengthening the overall planning of bio-economic development, improving the coordination mechanism with the participation of all relevant departments, and promoting major plans, major reforms, major policies and major projects for bio-economic development.

　　The second is to create a good atmosphere. Strengthen the popularization of biotechnology and create an environment conducive to the public’s objective and scientific understanding of biotechnology. Strengthen intellectual support for bio-economic development, promote research on major issues, and strengthen policy propaganda and interpretation. Support the holding of an international high-end bio-economic forum to improve China’s bio-economic influence.

　　The third is to strengthen coordination and cooperation. All localities and relevant state departments shall, in accordance with their duties, do a good job in the implementation of the Plan, speed up the formulation of supporting policies, and jointly promote the development and growth of bio-economy. Do a good job in supervision and evaluation to ensure that the objectives and overall strategic tasks of the Plan are implemented.

　　According to the website of the Ministry of Water Resources, in 2020, the Ministry of Water Resources organized relevant technical units to carry out comprehensive monitoring of the operation safety of the Three Gorges Project, dynamically grasping the operation and benefits of the Three Gorges Project, hydrology and water resources, soil and water conservation in the reservoir area, the safety of the reservoir area, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and other related conditions, and comprehensively compiled the main monitoring results of the year to form the Three Gorges Project Bulletin 2020, which was published on the portal of the Ministry of Water Resources.

　　According to the communique, the Three Gorges Project will operate well in 2020, and the comprehensive benefits such as flood control, power generation, shipping, water resources utilization and ecological environment protection will be brought into play significantly. In 2020, the Yangtze River experienced the worst basin flood since 1998, and the Three Gorges Reservoir experienced the largest inflow peak flow, reaching 75,000 cubic meters per second. Through scientific dispatching, the Three Gorges Project has effectively dealt with five numbered floods with peak flow exceeding 50,000 cubic meters per second, and accumulated 25.4 billion cubic meters of flood storage, thus avoiding the use of Jingjiang flood diversion area and Chenglingji flood storage and detention area. The experimental water storage target of 175 meters was successfully achieved for the 11th consecutive year after flood season. In 2020, the annual power generation will be 111.8 billion kWh, setting a new record for the annual power generation of a single hydropower station in the world. The annual cumulative cargo volume of the Three Gorges Shiplock reached 137 million tons. The Three Gorges Reservoir has replenished water for 164 days in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. For the 10th year in a row, the 14th ecological regulation experiment of Three Gorges Reservoir was carried out to promote the reproduction of the four major fishes (black carp, grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp) and other fishes producing drifting eggs, and the effect was good. The Three Gorges Reservoir has more water and sediment than in 2019, and the surface water resources in the reservoir area are more than in previous years. The area of soil erosion in the Three Gorges reservoir area has decreased and new achievements have been made in soil and water conservation. The frequency and intensity of earthquakes in the Three Gorges reservoir area are low, the banks of the Three Gorges reservoir are generally stable, the influence of water storage and retreat is properly handled, the river regime in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is generally stable, and comprehensive control measures are further strengthened.

　　The US independent investigation website "Interception" recently revealed that the affiliated institutions of the US Department of Defense had intervened in the public opinion cognition of the Middle East by manipulating topics and deceptive propaganda on social media Twitter, and continued to promote narratives beneficial to the United States and its allies. This is another example of American and Western governments using social media platforms to spread false information and manipulate international public opinion.

　　"White list" account of "wanton rampage"

　　Its content is more likely to get traffic.

　　According to the internal documents obtained from Twitter by Lee Fang, an investigative reporter of Interception website, in July 2017, Nathaniel Keller, an official of the Central Command, one of the Joint Operations Commandments under the Pentagon, sent a form to the Twitter public policy team, which was marked with 52 Arabic accounts.

　　Kale said at the time that these accounts belonged to the US government and posted "related security issues" on Twitter. Kale asked Twitter to give priority to six of these accounts, and one account was dedicated to promoting the U.S. drone attack on Yemen. For example, the U.S. drone attack was "accurate" and killed terrorists rather than civilians.

　　Other accounts in the form focus on promoting militia groups supported by the United States in Syria and anti-Iranian information in Iraq. Many accounts focus on a topic in one field, while others change the topic content regularly.

　　According to Kale’s request, Twitter put these Arabic accounts on the "white list" in order to "enlarge some information".

　　Lee Fang learned from an engineer on Twitter that putting an account on Twitter’s "white list" is basically equivalent to obtaining platform "blue label authentication", which can avoid being marked as "spam" or "account abuse" and its content is more likely to get traffic.

　　Lee Fang found that the Pentagon did not shy away from the connection with these accounts at first, but later began to change its strategy and became secretive, deleting all the information that could reflect the relationship between the accounts and the Pentagon.

　　Lee Fang pointed out that Twitter has always claimed to "identify and block secret information activities and deceptive propaganda supported by the government on its platform", but behind the scenes, the social media provided "approval and protection" for the US military’s public opinion intervention. Although it is known that these accounts in the Pentagon use fake identities, Twitter has not shut down these accounts for at least two years, and some accounts are still active today.

　　Invited Twitter and Facebook executives.

　　Discuss how to cover up the covert propaganda on the Pentagon’s Internet.

　　According to internal emails, Twitter executives and lawyers publicly discussed the covert propaganda actions of the Pentagon in 2020, and also shared another list of 157 undisclosed Pentagon accounts, which also focused on military issues in the Middle East.

　　According to New York Post, the Pentagon had previously invited Twitter and Facebook executives to attend a confidential meeting in a sensitive information isolation facility, and one of the main topics discussed was how to cover up the Pentagon’s covert propaganda activities on the Internet. After Musk acquired Twitter, he handed over the company’s previous internal discussion records and other documents to "independent journalists" for release to expose "the company’s past bad behavior".

　　The US Central Command did not directly respond to Lee Fang’s revelations, but forwarded the statement made by a Pentagon spokesman in September this year, who said that they were reviewing "military information support activities".

　　In order to expand the effect of public opinion manipulation

　　Accounts in each group often "act together"

　　The rise and development of Internet and social media provide a new environment and means for the American government to influence public opinion.

　　In August this year, a report jointly released by the Network Observation Room of Stanford University and Grafica Research Company, a social network analysis organization, showed that there was a "network of accounts that were interrelated and used deceptive strategies to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia" on mainstream western social media such as Twitter, Facebook and "photo wall". These accounts participated in "a series of secret propaganda offensives that lasted for nearly five years" and "continued to promote narratives that benefited the interests of the United States and its allies and opposed Russia, China and Iran".

　　The researchers concluded that some of these accounts are obviously related to the "cross-regional network initiative" of the US Department of Defense. The "Cross-regional Network Initiative" was initiated by the US Special Operations Command in 2008. It used a series of websites to influence public opinion and provide "information support" for US military operations.

　　These accounts are divided into different groups according to the countries and regions where the target audience is located. In order to expand the effect of public opinion manipulation, each group account often "acts in concert" and even posts automatically at certain intervals.

　　The customary rumors of these accounts include: using photos generated by theft, tampering or artificial intelligence as avatars; Issue highly consistent content at the same time with false identities such as "independent media" and "local residents"; Stir up rumors by adding labels and forwarding petitions. In order to concoct "hot topics", these accounts are highly active and concentrated in posting in some cases. The most typical case is that before and after the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, Central Asian groups posted nearly 200 posts a day, exaggerating Russia’s so-called "threat" to Central Asian countries.

　　These accounts often forward news from pro-Western media, American embassies and consulates abroad, the US military, etc., and sometimes deliberately package the forwarded fake news as original, or link with other related accounts and websites.

　　Eric sperling, executive director of just foreign policy, an anti-war organization in the United States, pointed out that if the Pentagon is shaping its understanding of the overseas role of the US military, it is deeply worrying, and if private enterprises also help to cover up these activities, the situation will be even worse. Congress and social media companies should investigate and take action to let American citizens know that their taxes are used to "positively publicize" the endless war in the United States. According to Xinhua News Agency