Implementing Rules of the Postal Law of the People's Republic of China
Implementing Rules of the Postal Law of the People's Republic of China
Implementing Rules of the Postal Law of the People's Republic of China
Order of the State Council No.65
November 12, 1990
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 These Rules are formulated in accordance with the Postal Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Postal Law).
Article 2 The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications) shall be the competent department of postal services under the State Council and shall administer postal services throughout the country.
The administrative bureaus of post and telecommunications of various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government (hereinafter referred to as the administrative bureaus of post and telecommunications) shall be the regional administrative organs of postal services, which shall administer postal services of respective regions.
Article 3 The municipality or county bureaus of post and telecommunications (including the post offices, - the same below) shall be public enterprises owned by the whole people that operate postal business (hereinafter referred to as "Postal enterprises"), and, after being authorized by the administrative bureaus of post and telecommunications, shall be responsible for the administration of postal services of the respective localities.
The branch post and telecommunications bureaus, the post and telecommunications offices, the branch post bureaus, and the postal offices shall be the branch offices that handle postal business (hereinafter referred to as "the branch office"); the postal kiosks and newspaper and periodical stands shall be the service points of postal enterprises.
The post and telecommunications agencies shall be considered as branch offices postal enterprises.
Article 4 Without the entrustment by the postal enterprises, no unit or individual may operate posting and delivery of letters, postcards or other articles with characteristics of mail, except as otherwise provided by the State Council.
The letters refer to those carriers which transit information by using sealed envelopes. The other articles with characteristics of mail refer to those carriers which transmit information by using such forms as symbols, images, or sounds. The specific contents thereof shall be stipulated by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
Article 5 In case that a postal enterprise entrusts other units or individuals with the handling of postal business, they shall reach an agreement through consultation and sign entrustment contracts.
Article 6 All units and individuals that make use of the postal services of China shall be generally called postal users (hereinafter referred to as users).
Article 7 A postal enterprise shall provide users with fast, accurate, safe and convenient postal services, and protect the lawful rights and interests of users in making use of postal services.
Any unit of individual shall have the obligations to protect freedom and privacy of correspondence, and the safety of postal materials; no unit or individual may use postal services for activities forbidden by laws, regulations and policies.
In the course of transportation and delivery of postal materials, no unit or individual shall inspect or detain the postal materials under any pretext, except when the inspection of correspondence according to law by public security organs, state security organs, or procuratorial organs is necessary for the state security or the investigation of criminal offences.
Article 8 In the event that a public security organ, a state security organ, or a procuratorial organ inspects or detains postal materials or freezes remittances or savings deposits out of the necessity for the state security or the investigation of a criminal offence, it is imperative for the aforesaid organs to issue according to law notifications of the relevant inspection, detention, or freezing to the postal enterprise or the administrative bureau of post and telecommunications concerned at or above the county level, and to make out a list of the specific items of postal materials, remittances, or savings deposits; after going through the procedures for inspection, detention or freezing, the postal enterprise shall appoint specially-designated persons to be responsible for sorting out the items in question, register them one by one, and then go through the hand-over procedures; with respect to those postal materials, remittances or savings deposits which need no further inspection, detention or freezing, or which have been proved through investigation to have nothing to do with the case concerned, they shall be returned to the postal enterprise without delay. In case that in the course of inspection, detention or freezing the postal materials, remittances or savings deposits are lost or damaged, the relevant public security, state security, or procuratorial organ shall be responsible for compensation.
Article 9 In case that a people's court, or a procuratorial organ confiscates domestic postal materials, remittances or savings deposits, it must present relevant legal documents, and go through the relevant procedures with the postal enterprise and administrative bureau of post and telecommunications at or above the county level. The decision on the confiscation of incoming or outgoing international postal articles shall be made by the Customs, which shall also complete the relevant procedures.
Article 10 In case that a unit concerned has the necessity to collect or obtain evidence or consult the postal business archives, according to law, it must obtain a written certificate issued by the public security organ, the state security organ, the procuratorial organ, or the people's court, in the place where the postal enterprise concerned is located, make a list of the specific items of postal materials, and then go through the relevant procedures with the postal enterprise and the administrative bureau of post and telecommunications at or above the county level.
Article 11 No unit or individual may commit the following acts that hamper the normal operations of postal services;
1. to damage postal installations;
2. to set up stalls or to stack up things in front of the entrance to, or in the in-and-out passage ways of postal enterprises or their branch offices, thereby hampering users to make use of postal services or blocking the passage of postal vehicles;
3. to make trouble willfully or disturb the normal order at the sites where postal business is conducted;
4. to hamper postal staff from executing their duties according to law, or to seek a quarrel;
5. to intercept postal means of transport, to hamper illegally the transportation and delivery of postal materials, or force their way to get on postal means of transport;
6. to inspect or detain postal materials illegally;
7. to commit other acts that hamper the postal enterprises or their branch offices or postal staff from performing their normal work.
Chapter II The Establishment of Postal Enterprises and Postal Ins- tallations
Article 12 The standards for the establishment of postal enterprises and their branch offices shall be stipulated by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications; the establishment and abolition of post enterprises shall be approved by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications; the establishment and abolition of branch offices shall be approved by the administrative bureaus of post and telecommunications and be reported to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications for the record.
Article 13 The local people's governments at various levels shall incorporate the establishment of postal enterprises and their branch offices as well as the construction of various postal installations into their urban and rural construction plans.
Article 14 While constructing new districts in cities, isolated industrial and mining areas and residential districts, as well as transforming large expanse of old urban districts, the planning and establishment of the matching postal enterprises and their branch offices as well as the various postal installations shall be carried out simultaneously.
Article 15 When postal enterprises establish postal kiosks, newspaper and periodical stands, pillar boxes, mail boxes or conduct mobile services according to law, the units and individuals concerned shall provide conveniences.
Article 16 Letter and newspaper boxes for receiving postal materials are the matching facilities in residential buildings, and designing units shall include them in the standard designs of the construction of residential buildings.
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