China is to enact a law against secession, the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, announced Friday.

The draft anti-secession law will be submitted for deliberation at the 13th session of the 10th NPC Standing Committee, scheduled on Dec. 25-29 in Beijing.

The session agenda was adopted Friday afternoon at a chairmanship meeting of the NPC Standing Committee.

Over the past year, quite a few Chinese lawmakers and senior government advisors have proposed that "a law on national reunification be enacted as soon as possible." According to media reports, Zhou Hongyu, a professor of the Central China Normal University and a deputy to the 10th NPC, was one of the first to table a motion calling for such a legislation during the NPC's annual full session in March this year.

While visiting the United Kingdom in May this year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also received similar requests from a group of overseas Chinese and Chinese scholars and students staying there. The premier promised them that the central government would "seriously consider" any proposal that is "conducive to the complete reunification of the motherland."

A senior lawmaker in charge of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the 10th NPC Standing Committee explained Friday that the anti-secession law the NPC plans to enact will not be applicable to the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SARs) of China.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2004)