China's top legislature, or the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), on Tuesday voted to adopt the proposal to exempt foreign central bank's assets in China from judicial enforcement, after the second reading.

The adopted bill will apply to Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions as well as China’s mainland.

According to the four-article draft bill, foreign central banks' assets include cash, bank deposits, securities, foreign exchange reserves, gold reserves and other properties.

China has been sticking to the principle of jurisdiction exemption from foreign countries and their assets. In practice, Chinese courts neither exercise jurisdiction or enforcement on foreign central banks. However, there is no relevant legislation in this regard in China yet, said Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Dawei while explaining the draft bill to lawmakers for first reading in August.

After Hong Kong returned to mainland, some foreign central banks voiced concerns about the lack of laws protecting their assets after previous bills in Hong Kong were invalidated, Wu said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2005)