Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2024)
Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2024)
Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised in 2024)
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.25
June 28, 2024
The Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China, adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on June 28, 2024, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of November 1, 2024.
Xi Jinping President of the People’s Republic of China
Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised in 2024)
(Adopted at the 29th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress on August 30, 2007 and revised at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress on June 28, 2024)
Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Management and Command System
Chapter III Prevention and Emergency Preparedness
Chapter IV Monitoring and Early Warning
Chapter V Emergency Response and Rescue
Chapter VI Post-emergency Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Chapter VII Legal Liability
Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution for the purposes of preventing and reducing the occurrence of emergencies, controlling, mitigating, and eliminating the serious social harm caused by emergencies, improving the ability to prevent and respond to emergencies, regulating the activities in response to emergencies, protecting the life and property safety of the people, safeguarding the national security, public security, and ecological and environmental security, and maintaining the social order.
Article 2 For the purposes of this Law, emergencies include natural disasters, calamitous accidents, public health accidents and public security incidents, which occur abruptly and cause or may potentially cause serious social harm and for which measures for handling emergencies need to be adopted.
This Law is applicable to the prevention of and preparation for the response to emergencies, monitoring and early warning, emergency handling, rescue and relief, and post-emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction, and other activities in response to emergencies.
If the response to public health emergencies is prescribed in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases or other relevant laws, such provisions shall apply. In the absence of such provisions in the relevant laws, this Law shall apply.
Article 3 According to the degree of social harm done and the extent of repercussions and other factors, sudden natural disasters, calamitous accidents, and public health incidents are classified into four levels: especially serious, serious, relatively serious and common. Where it is otherwise prescribed by any law or administrative regulation or the State Council, such provisions shall prevail.
The standards for classifying the grades of emergencies shall be formulated by the State Council or the department designated by the State Council.
Article 4 The emergency response shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, follow the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, a centralized, unified, efficient, and authoritative leadership system for the emergency response with Chinese characteristics shall be established and improved, and the governance system featuring the leadership of the Party committee, governments' assumption of responsibilities, inter-departmental coordination, joint efforts of military and local authorities, social collaboration, public participation, scientific and technological support, and legal safeguards shall be improved.
Article 5 The emergency response shall be subject to a holistic approach to national security, coordinate development and security, put protecting the people and human life first, adhere to the scientific response in accordance with the law, respect and safeguard human rights, and adhere to giving priority to prevention and integrating prevention with the emergency response.
Article 6 The state shall establish an effective social mobilization mechanism, arrange for and mobilize all parties, including enterprises, public institutions, social organizations and volunteers, to legally participate in the emergency response in a well-regulated manner, enhance all citizens’ awareness of public security and risk prevention, and improve the ability of the whole of society to avoid risks and provide assistance.
Article 7 The state shall establish and improve an emergency information release system. The people's governments and departments concerned shall promptly release to the public the information on emergencies and information on decisions, orders, and measures, among others, relating to the emergency response.
No entity or individual shall fabricate or intentionally disseminate any false information on an emergency. If the relevant people's government or department finds any false or incomplete information that affects or may affect social stability or disrupts or may disrupt the social and economic management order, it shall promptly release accurate information to clarify the situation.
Article 8 The state shall establish and improve a system for the news coverage and reporting of emergencies. The people's governments and departments concerned shall effectively guide news media services and support news media in conducting news coverage and reporting and supervision via public opinion.
The news media shall report emergencies in a timely, accurate, objective, and impartial manner.
The news media shall, for the public good, disseminate gratis the knowledge on laws and regulations on the emergency response, prevention and emergency response, self-rescue and mutual rescue knowledge, among others.
Article 9 The state shall establish rules for filing complaints and reports on the emergency response, and announce uniform methods for filing complaints and reports.
Any entity or individual shall have the right to file a complaint or report on the failure to perform or incorrectly perform the duties of emergency response with the relevant people's government and department.
The people's government and department that receives the complaint or report shall immediately organize an investigation and handling in accordance with the relevant provisions, and inform the complainant or informant of the investigation and handling result in an appropriate manner; and if any issue involved in the complaint or report falls outside of the scope of its duties, the complaint or report shall be promptly transferred to the relevant authority for handling.
The people's government and department concerned shall keep confidential the information on the complainant or informant, and safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the complainant and informant.
Article 10 The emergency response measures shall be commensurate with the nature, severity, and scope of social harm that may be incurred from and by an emergency; and if multiple measures are available, the measures that are conducive to safeguarding the rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations to the greatest extent and have less impact on others' rights and interests and the ecology and environment shall be taken and adjusted promptly as per the change in situations, and shall be scientific, precise, and effective.
Article 11 In an emergency response, the state shall provide special and prioritized protection to groups such as the minors, the elderly, the disabled, women in pregnancy and lactation, and the sick and injured who need prompt medical treatment.
Article 12 In the case of an urgent need to respond to an emergency, the people's government at or above the county level and its departments concerned may requisition the equipment, facilities, venues, means of transport, and other properties of entities and individuals. Any property requisitioned shall be promptly returned after the completion of use or the emergency response. Fair and reasonable compensation shall be paid if the property is requisitioned or damaged or lost after requisitioning.
Article 13 Where litigation, oversight and investigation, administrative reconsideration, arbitration, state compensation, and other activities cannot proceed normally because of the adoption of emergency response measures, the provisions on the suspension of the limitation period or of proceedings shall apply, unless otherwise provided for by the law.
Article 14 The Government of the People’s Republic of China shall carry out cooperation and exchange with the governments of other countries and the international organizations concerned in matters of emergency prevention and emergency preparedness, monitoring, early warning, emergency handling, rescue and relief, and post-emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Article 15 The entities and individuals that have made outstanding contributions in the emergency response shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state.
Chapter II Management and Command System
Article 16 The state shall establish an emergency response management system featuring unified command, both specialized and regular operations, a quick response, coordination between the higher and lower levels, and a working system featuring comprehensive coordination, categorized management, hierarchical responsibility, and chiefly, territorial management.
Article 17 The people's government at the county level shall be responsible for the emergency response management within its administrative region. After an emergency occurs, the people’s government at the county level at the place where the emergency occurs shall take immediate measures to keep the development of the situation under control, organize efforts for an emergency rescue, relief and handling and, without delay, report the matter to the people’s government at the next higher level or, when necessary, do so by bypassing the people’s government at the next higher level and shall prepare a direct network report or automatic quick report if the conditions permit.
Where the people’s government at the county level at the place where an emergency occurs is unable to eliminate or keep under effective control the serious social harm caused by the emergency, it shall, in a timely manner, report the matter to the people’s government at a higher level, which shall take timely measures and exercise unified leadership in handling the emergency.
Where laws or administrative regulations provide that the relevant department of the State Council should take charge of responding to emergency management, such provisions shall prevail; and the local people’s governments shall cooperate in a proactive way and provide the necessary support.
Article 18 Where two or more administrative regions are involved in an emergency, the common people's government at the next higher level of the relevant administrative regions or the people's governments at the next higher level of the relevant administrative regions shall be jointly responsible for the response management. The people's governments with joint responsibility shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state, establish mechanisms for information sharing and coordination and cooperation. As needed for the joint response to emergencies, local people's governments may establish a coordinated response mechanism.
Article 19 People's governments at and above the county level shall be the leading administrative agencies for emergency response management.
The State Council shall, under the leadership of the Premier, study, decide on, and make deployment for the response to especially serious emergencies; it shall, in light of actual needs, establish a national command for the emergency response, which shall be responsible for the work in this respect; and when necessary, it may send a work team to guide the relevant work.
The local people’s government at or above the county level shall establish a command for the emergency response, which is composed of the principal leading persons of the said government, the leading persons of the departments concerned, and the relevant leading persons of the national comprehensive fire and rescue team, the units of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and of the People’s Armed Police Force stationed there, among others, to exercise unified leadership and coordinate the efforts of the relevant departments of the said people’s government and the people’s governments at lower levels in responding to emergencies; and it shall, in light of actual needs, establish commands commensurate with the specific grades of emergencies, which shall organize, coordinate and direct the work in this respect.
Article 20 The command for the emergency response may, in the course of an emergency response, issue decisions, orders, and measures related to the emergency response in accordance with the law. The decisions, orders, and measures issued by the command for the emergency response shall have equal legal force as those issued by the people's government that has established the command, and the legal liability shall be borne by the people's government that has established the command.
Article 21 The emergency response management department and health, public security, and other relevant departments of the people's government at or above the county level shall, within the scope of their respective duties, effectively manage the response to relevant emergencies, and direct and assist people's governments at lower levels and their corresponding departments in effectively managing the response to relevant emergencies.
Article 22 The people's governments at the township level and sub-district offices shall designate special working forces to be responsible for the emergency response.
Urban residents' committees and villagers' committees shall legally assist people's governments and relevant departments in effectively conducting the emergency response.
Article 23 Citizens, legal persons and other organizations shall be obligated to participate in responding to emergencies.
Article 24 The Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force and the militia shall participate in the emergency rescue, relief and handling in accordance with the provisions of this Law and of the relevant laws, administrative regulations and military regulations, as well as the orders issued by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.
Article 25 The decisions, orders, and measures on the emergency response issued by the people's government at or above the county level and the command for the emergency response established by the government shall be promptly submitted to the standing committee of the people's congress at the same level for filing.
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Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.25
June 28, 2024
The Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China, adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on June 28, 2024, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of November 1, 2024.
Xi Jinping President of the People’s Republic of China
Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised in 2024)
(Adopted at the 29th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress on August 30, 2007 and revised at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress on June 28, 2024)
Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Management and Command System
Chapter III Prevention and Emergency Preparedness
Chapter IV Monitoring and Early Warning
Chapter V Emergency Response and Rescue
Chapter VI Post-emergency Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Chapter VII Legal Liability
Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution for the purposes of preventing and reducing the occurrence of emergencies, controlling, mitigating, and eliminating the serious social harm caused by emergencies, improving the ability to prevent and respond to emergencies, regulating the activities in response to emergencies, protecting the life and property safety of the people, safeguarding the national security, public security, and ecological and environmental security, and maintaining the social order.
Article 2 For the purposes of this Law, emergencies include natural disasters, calamitous accidents, public health accidents and public security incidents, which occur abruptly and cause or may potentially cause serious social harm and for which measures for handling emergencies need to be adopted.
This Law is applicable to the prevention of and preparation for the response to emergencies, monitoring and early warning, emergency handling, rescue and relief, and post-emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction, and other activities in response to emergencies.
If the response to public health emergencies is prescribed in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases or other relevant laws, such provisions shall apply. In the absence of such provisions in the relevant laws, this Law shall apply.
Article 3 According to the degree of social harm done and the extent of repercussions and other factors, sudden natural disasters, calamitous accidents, and public health incidents are classified into four levels: especially serious, serious, relatively serious and common. Where it is otherwise prescribed by any law or administrative regulation or the State Council, such provisions shall prevail.
The standards for classifying the grades of emergencies shall be formulated by the State Council or the department designated by the State Council.
Article 4 The emergency response shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, follow the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, a centralized, unified, efficient, and authoritative leadership system for the emergency response with Chinese characteristics shall be established and improved, and the governance system featuring the leadership of the Party committee, governments' assumption of responsibilities, inter-departmental coordination, joint efforts of military and local authorities, social collaboration, public participation, scientific and technological support, and legal safeguards shall be improved.
Article 5 The emergency response shall be subject to a holistic approach to national security, coordinate development and security, put protecting the people and human life first, adhere to the scientific response in accordance with the law, respect and safeguard human rights, and adhere to giving priority to prevention and integrating prevention with the emergency response.
Article 6 The state shall establish an effective social mobilization mechanism, arrange for and mobilize all parties, including enterprises, public institutions, social organizations and volunteers, to legally participate in the emergency response in a well-regulated manner, enhance all citizens’ awareness of public security and risk prevention, and improve the ability of the whole of society to avoid risks and provide assistance.
Article 7 The state shall establish and improve an emergency information release system. The people's governments and departments concerned shall promptly release to the public the information on emergencies and information on decisions, orders, and measures, among others, relating to the emergency response.
No entity or individual shall fabricate or intentionally disseminate any false information on an emergency. If the relevant people's government or department finds any false or incomplete information that affects or may affect social stability or disrupts or may disrupt the social and economic management order, it shall promptly release accurate information to clarify the situation.
Article 8 The state shall establish and improve a system for the news coverage and reporting of emergencies. The people's governments and departments concerned shall effectively guide news media services and support news media in conducting news coverage and reporting and supervision via public opinion.
The news media shall report emergencies in a timely, accurate, objective, and impartial manner.
The news media shall, for the public good, disseminate gratis the knowledge on laws and regulations on the emergency response, prevention and emergency response, self-rescue and mutual rescue knowledge, among others.
Article 9 The state shall establish rules for filing complaints and reports on the emergency response, and announce uniform methods for filing complaints and reports.
Any entity or individual shall have the right to file a complaint or report on the failure to perform or incorrectly perform the duties of emergency response with the relevant people's government and department.
The people's government and department that receives the complaint or report shall immediately organize an investigation and handling in accordance with the relevant provisions, and inform the complainant or informant of the investigation and handling result in an appropriate manner; and if any issue involved in the complaint or report falls outside of the scope of its duties, the complaint or report shall be promptly transferred to the relevant authority for handling.
The people's government and department concerned shall keep confidential the information on the complainant or informant, and safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the complainant and informant.
Article 10 The emergency response measures shall be commensurate with the nature, severity, and scope of social harm that may be incurred from and by an emergency; and if multiple measures are available, the measures that are conducive to safeguarding the rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations to the greatest extent and have less impact on others' rights and interests and the ecology and environment shall be taken and adjusted promptly as per the change in situations, and shall be scientific, precise, and effective.
Article 11 In an emergency response, the state shall provide special and prioritized protection to groups such as the minors, the elderly, the disabled, women in pregnancy and lactation, and the sick and injured who need prompt medical treatment.
Article 12 In the case of an urgent need to respond to an emergency, the people's government at or above the county level and its departments concerned may requisition the equipment, facilities, venues, means of transport, and other properties of entities and individuals. Any property requisitioned shall be promptly returned after the completion of use or the emergency response. Fair and reasonable compensation shall be paid if the property is requisitioned or damaged or lost after requisitioning.
Article 13 Where litigation, oversight and investigation, administrative reconsideration, arbitration, state compensation, and other activities cannot proceed normally because of the adoption of emergency response measures, the provisions on the suspension of the limitation period or of proceedings shall apply, unless otherwise provided for by the law.
Article 14 The Government of the People’s Republic of China shall carry out cooperation and exchange with the governments of other countries and the international organizations concerned in matters of emergency prevention and emergency preparedness, monitoring, early warning, emergency handling, rescue and relief, and post-emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Article 15 The entities and individuals that have made outstanding contributions in the emergency response shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state.
Chapter II Management and Command System
Article 16 The state shall establish an emergency response management system featuring unified command, both specialized and regular operations, a quick response, coordination between the higher and lower levels, and a working system featuring comprehensive coordination, categorized management, hierarchical responsibility, and chiefly, territorial management.
Article 17 The people's government at the county level shall be responsible for the emergency response management within its administrative region. After an emergency occurs, the people’s government at the county level at the place where the emergency occurs shall take immediate measures to keep the development of the situation under control, organize efforts for an emergency rescue, relief and handling and, without delay, report the matter to the people’s government at the next higher level or, when necessary, do so by bypassing the people’s government at the next higher level and shall prepare a direct network report or automatic quick report if the conditions permit.
Where the people’s government at the county level at the place where an emergency occurs is unable to eliminate or keep under effective control the serious social harm caused by the emergency, it shall, in a timely manner, report the matter to the people’s government at a higher level, which shall take timely measures and exercise unified leadership in handling the emergency.
Where laws or administrative regulations provide that the relevant department of the State Council should take charge of responding to emergency management, such provisions shall prevail; and the local people’s governments shall cooperate in a proactive way and provide the necessary support.
Article 18 Where two or more administrative regions are involved in an emergency, the common people's government at the next higher level of the relevant administrative regions or the people's governments at the next higher level of the relevant administrative regions shall be jointly responsible for the response management. The people's governments with joint responsibility shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state, establish mechanisms for information sharing and coordination and cooperation. As needed for the joint response to emergencies, local people's governments may establish a coordinated response mechanism.
Article 19 People's governments at and above the county level shall be the leading administrative agencies for emergency response management.
The State Council shall, under the leadership of the Premier, study, decide on, and make deployment for the response to especially serious emergencies; it shall, in light of actual needs, establish a national command for the emergency response, which shall be responsible for the work in this respect; and when necessary, it may send a work team to guide the relevant work.
The local people’s government at or above the county level shall establish a command for the emergency response, which is composed of the principal leading persons of the said government, the leading persons of the departments concerned, and the relevant leading persons of the national comprehensive fire and rescue team, the units of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and of the People’s Armed Police Force stationed there, among others, to exercise unified leadership and coordinate the efforts of the relevant departments of the said people’s government and the people’s governments at lower levels in responding to emergencies; and it shall, in light of actual needs, establish commands commensurate with the specific grades of emergencies, which shall organize, coordinate and direct the work in this respect.
Article 20 The command for the emergency response may, in the course of an emergency response, issue decisions, orders, and measures related to the emergency response in accordance with the law. The decisions, orders, and measures issued by the command for the emergency response shall have equal legal force as those issued by the people's government that has established the command, and the legal liability shall be borne by the people's government that has established the command.
Article 21 The emergency response management department and health, public security, and other relevant departments of the people's government at or above the county level shall, within the scope of their respective duties, effectively manage the response to relevant emergencies, and direct and assist people's governments at lower levels and their corresponding departments in effectively managing the response to relevant emergencies.
Article 22 The people's governments at the township level and sub-district offices shall designate special working forces to be responsible for the emergency response.
Urban residents' committees and villagers' committees shall legally assist people's governments and relevant departments in effectively conducting the emergency response.
Article 23 Citizens, legal persons and other organizations shall be obligated to participate in responding to emergencies.
Article 24 The Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force and the militia shall participate in the emergency rescue, relief and handling in accordance with the provisions of this Law and of the relevant laws, administrative regulations and military regulations, as well as the orders issued by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.
Article 25 The decisions, orders, and measures on the emergency response issued by the people's government at or above the county level and the command for the emergency response established by the government shall be promptly submitted to the standing committee of the people's congress at the same level for filing.
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