国发[2000]23号
颁布日期：20000824 　实施日期：20010101 　颁布单位：国务院

Section 1. General principles

Article 1. This Regulation is formulated for the standard, systematic and optimised handling of official documents in the Administrative Departments of the Government (hereinafter referred to as the Administrative Departments).

Article 2. Official documents (including telegrams, same in the following places) are documents with legal effect and of standard forms formulated in the process of administration and are important instruments for carrying out administration and official activities in accordance with the law.

Article 3. Handing of official documents refer to the inter-related and ordered procedure of processing, administration, filing archiving etc of official documents.

Article 4. When handing official documents, such principles shall be respected as “seeking truth from facts, simplicity, efficiency” in order to ensure rapid, accurate and safe handling.

Article 5. When handling official documents, law s and regulations concerning State secrecy shall be respected.

Article 6. The person-in-charge of the Administrative Departments at all levels shall attach great importance to handling of official documents and shall set an example in abiding by this Regulation and enhance supervision and checking over the work of handling official documents in his Department.

Article 7. The General Offices of the Administrative Departments at all levels are the administrative organs for handling official documents in the Departments and for guiding the handling of official documents of their sub-branches.

Article 8. The General Offices of the Administrative Department at all levels shall establish secretariats composed of specialists in handling official documents.

Section 2. Types of official documents

Article 9. Types of official documents of the Administrative Departments are as follows:

(1)Order

An order shall be issued in the following situation: publishing administrative regulations and rules in accordance with the law, announcing the implementation of important enforcing administrative measures, and granting citations to relevant work units and personnel.

(2)Decision

A decision shall be given in the following situation: deciding on important issues or actions, granting citations to relevant work units and personnel, changing or cancelling inappropriate decisions made by sub-branches.

(3)Announcement

An announcement shall be made when announcing important issues or statutory matters to the nation or to the whole world.

(4)Publication

A publication shall be issued when publishing issues to be known or respected by the public.

(5)Notice

A notice shall be issued when approving or forwarding official documents made by sub-branches, forwarding official documents made by the Department at a higher or parallel level, informing sub-branches or other relevant organs matters that should be known and handled thereby, or when announcing personnel appointing or removal.

(6)Circular

A circular shall be issued for commendation or criticism, or for making public important issues.

(7)Motion

A motion shall be submitted by the People’s Government at all levels to the People’s Congress or its Standing Committee at the same level to raise proposals.

(8)Report

A report shall be handed in to the Department at a higher level for describing work and issues and for responding to enquiries made by the Department at a higher level.

(9)Asking for instructions

An asking for instructions shall be made when soliciting instructions or approvals from the Department at a higher level.

(10)Response

A response shall be granted when granting instructions to sub-branches.

(11)Opinion

An opinion shall be given when providing opinion over important issues and the solutions thereof.

(12)Letter

An letter shall be written when consulting, enquiring and giving reply or approval, and asking for approval to a parallel Department.

(13)Minute of meeting

A minute of meeting shall be prepared for recording, forwarding the content of a meeting.

Section 3. Forms of official documents

Article 10. An official document is composed of level of secrecy, term of confidentiality, level of urgency, name of the issuer, issuing number, signer, heading, principal receivers, body text, explanatory notes of the annexes, date of issuance, seal, notes, annexes, subject reminders, receivers of the copy, printing organs and printing date, etc.

(1)An official document relating to State secrecy shall be marked with level of secrecy and term of confidentiality. Official documents of “secrecy” or “top secrecy” shall, in addition, be marked with the total number and sequence number of copies.

(2)Urgent official documents shall be marked with level of urgency such as “urgent” or “extra urgent”. Telegrams shall be marked “most urgent”, “extra urgent”, “urgent” and “usual”.

(3)The name of the issuer shall be the complete name or standard abbreviation of the issuer. In case there are several issuers, the principal one shall be the first in sequence.

(4)The issuing number shall include the initials of the issuer, the year and the sequence number. In case there are several issuers, only the issuing number of the principal issuers shall be marked.

(5)The name of signer and counter-signer shall be marked. In case of asking for instruction, the name and telephone number of the person to contact shall be provided in the Note.

(6)The heading of an official document shall indicate the main content and the type of the document. The issuer shall also be marked. Except regulations and rules that shall be included in brackets, no other punctuation shall be used.

(7)Principal receivers refer to principal Departments to handle the document. The complete name or standard or uniform abbreviation shall be used.

(8)In case the document has annexes, the sequence and names of the annexes shall be marked.

(9)Except minutes of meeting and telegrams, all official documents shall be sealed. A document submitted to the Department at a higher level by several issuers shall be sealed by the principal Department; A document issued to sub-branches shall be sealed by all the issuers.

(10)Date of issuance shall be the date of signature by the person-in-charge. In case there are several issuers, date of issuance shall be the date of signature by the person-in-charge of the Department who is the last signer of the document. The date of issuance of a telegram shall be the date of dispatch.

(11)In case there is explanatory note (to explain other matters), it shall be included in brackets.

(12)An official document shall have a subject reminder. The subject remainder shall be marked according to the requirement of the Department at a higher level.

(13)The receivers of copies refer to other Departments that need to know or implement the official document in addition to the principal receivers. The complete names or standard or uniform abbreviations shall be used.

(14)An official document shall be written from the left side to the right side and arranged horizontally. In an Autonomous Region of ethnic minorities, both Mandarin Chinese and minority characters can be used according to the writing and arranging practice.

Article 11. For rules concerning the markings and indications of the component parts of an official document, reference shall be made to the State Standard set by the Forms of Official Documents of the Administrative Departments of the Government.

Article 12. An official document shall use A4-sized paper (210mm x 297mm) and be bound on the left side. The size of paper for official document posters shall be decided according to need.

Section 4. Rules for drafting official documents

Article 13. Drafting official documents shall be out of real need and stress its effectiveness.

Article 14. According to the hierarchy and scope of power of different Administrative Departments, an official document shall address to the Department at an immediate higher level which shall not, in general, be by-passed.

Article 15. The various Departments of a Government may address official documents between each other or to the Departments at an immediate lower level. Except letters written for consulting, enquiring, reply and approval, they shall not, in general, address official documents to the Government at an immediate lower level.

Except the General Office, other interior sections shall not address official documents to outside Departments.

Article 16. The Governments at the same level, the governmental Departments at the same level and the governmental Departments at a higher level and the Government at a lower level can jointly issue official documents; the governmental Departments and corresponding Departments in the Party and in the military force can jointly issue official documents; the governmental Department and the quasi-governmental organisations and other units having administrative functions can also jointly issue official documents.

Article 17. In regard to affairs within the power scope of a Department, the Department shall issue official documents by itself or jointly with others. A jointly-issued official document shall indicate its principal handling organ. In regard to affairs which should be approved by the Government, upon approval by the Government, a Department can also issue an official document in which “approval by the Government” shall be indicated.

Article 18.

Matters which fall within the power scope of the principal handling organ shall be directly submitted to the principal handling organ.

Article 19. If the Departments do not reach agreement on a certain issue, any of them can not issue an official document by itself to organs at lower levels. The organ at a higher level shall order to cannel or revoke such an official document.

Article 20. Important official documents issued to organs at lower levels or to interior sections shall have copies reported to the organ at an immediate higher level.

Article 21. An official document “request for instruction” shall only contain one issue. It shall, in general, only have on e principal receiver. If it is necessary to submit to other organs, it shall use copies; however, copies shall not given to organs at lower levels. “A report” can not contain request for instructions”.

Article 22. Except for matters directly handed over by the person-in-charge of the organ at a higher level, an organ shall not, in its own name, submit “request for instructions”, “opinion” and “reports” to the person-in-charge of the organ at a higher level.

Article 23. An organ having two superior organs, when submitting an official document to the two superior organs, shall indicate which is the principal receiver and which is the copy receiver. One of the superior organs, when issuing an official document to an organ having two superior organs, shall, if necessary, give a copy to the other superior organ.

Section 5. Issuing official documents

Article 24. Issuing official documents refers to the procedure by which an organ formulates and issues official documents in its own name. This procedure includes drafting, checking, signing and issuing, re-checking, printing, stamping and distribution, etc.

Article 25. When drafting an official document, the following rules shall be respected:

(1)drafting in compliance with State laws, regulations and other rules. If new policies or rules are formulated, they shall be feasible and set forth with explanation.

(2)the style shall be definite, clear-cut, precise, carefully structured, well organised, straightforward and concise with standardised wording and correct punctuation.

(3)the type of the official document shall be decided according to the its purpose, the power scope of the issuing organ and the relationship between the issuing organ and the principal receiver.

(4)when drafting an urgent official document, the reason for the urgency shall be indicated and the degree of urgency shall be decided in accordance with the need.

(5)names of persons and places, numbers and quotations shall be correct. When quoting another official document, the heading shall be first quoted, and then its number. Quotation in foreign languages shall have Chinese translation. The date shall include the year, the month and the day.

(6)when indicating structure levels, use Chinese sequence number without brackets for the first level, Chinese sequence number in brackets for the second level, Arabic sequence number without brackets for the third level and Arabic sequence number in brackets for the fourth level.

(7)the State standard measurement units shall be used.

(8)if non-standard simplified names or terms are to be used, the complete names or terms shall first be used and followed by the simplified names or terms. If the name of an international organisation or its abbreviation is to be used, the Chinese translation shall be indicated when use such a name for the first time in the official document.

(9)numbers in the official documents, except the drafting date, some of the numbers indicating structure levels, numbers which constitute words, groups of words and abbreviations, shall use Arabic numbers.

Article 26. When drafting an official document involving matters within the power scope of other Departments, the principal handling Department shall consult with relevant Departments. It shall start drafting only upon agreement by the other relevant Departments. If no agreement can be reached, the person-in-charge of the principal handling Department shall co-ordinate between the relevant Departments. In case no agreement can even be reached after such co-ordination, the principal handling Department can draft the official document by writing the positions of all relevant Departments which shall in turn counter-sign the official document. And document shall be submitted to the organ at a higher level for co-ordination or decision.

Article 27. Before submitting the official document to the person-in-charge for signature and issuing, it shall be checked by the General Office. The main points to be checked are: the need to issue the document, type of the document, conformity with the drafting and handling rules and forms of the document.

Article 28. Documents issued in the name of the organ to an organ at a higher level shall be signed by the principal persons-in-charge or the current person-in-charge. Documents issued in the name of the organ to organs at lower levels shall be signed by the principal persons-in-charge or the persons authorised thereby.

Article 29. Before being printed, the document shall be re-checked by the Secretariat to verify whether the procedure for approval, signing and issuing is complete, whether the annexes are complete and whether the form is unified. If substantive modifications are needed, the procedure shall be repeated.

Section 6. Receiving official documents

Article 30. Receiving official documents refers to the procedure for receiving official documents, including signing for receipt, registration, checking, designating a handler, approval for the designation, handling and pressing for handling etc.

Article 31. After receiving an official document from an organ at a lower level, the secretariat of the organ at a higher level shall check it to see whether it needs to be handled by the organ, whether the drafting rules have been respected, whether the content is accordance with the law and regulations, whether consultation and counter-signing have been made by other Departments, and whether the type and form are correct.

Article 32. If the document passes the checking, the secretariat shall designate a handler to submit the document to the person-in-charge who shall approve or disapprove the designation. In case two handlers are designated, the principal handler shall be named. Handling deadline shall be indicated for urgent documents. If the document does not pass the checking, after approval by the person-in-charge of the General Office, it can be returned to the issuing organ, but the reason for return shall be indicated.

Article 33. The handler shall handle the document in time and without delay. The deadline for urgent document shall be respected. If it is indeed difficult to meet the deadline, explanation shall be made in time. If the document does not fall within the power scope of the handler or it is improper to be handled by it, the handler shall return the document to the secretariat together with explanation for such a return.

Article 34. When receiving a document from an organ at a higher level, the secretariat shall designate a handler and the person-in-charge shall approve or disapprove such a designation.

Article 35. When handling an official document involving matters within the power scope of other Departments, the principal handling Department shall consult with relevant Departments. If no agreement can be reached, the person-in-charge of the principal handling Department shall co-ordinate between the relevant Departments. In case no agreement can even be reached after such co-ordination, the principal handling Department can report it to the organ at a higher level for co-ordination or decision.

Article 36. When approving an official document involving a specific request for instruction, the principal approving person shall give definite instructions and sign his name and indicate the date of approval. Other approving persons may approve or disapprove the instructions of the principal approving person. If the document does not involve a specific request for instruction, the other approving persons may simply acknowledge their receipt.

Article 37. The secretariat shall from time to time press for the in-time handling of official documents.

Section 7. Archiving of official documents

Article 38. After handling an official document, the document shall be filed and archived in accordance with the Law on Archives of the People’s Republic of China.

Any individual shall not retain official documents which shall be archived.

Article 39. The official documents shall be arranged in accordance with their inter-relationship, their characters and archive value. An archive shall be complete and in its entirety so as to reflect the work of the organ and to be used later.

Article 40. An official document which has been jointly handled shall be archived by the principal handler and other handlers can keep copies or photocopies.

Article 41. If the person-in-charge of an organ occupies at the same time a position in another organ, documents he has handled in connection with his position in another organ shall be archived by the other organ.

Article 42. Official documents shall have archive terms and shall be transferred to archive departments from time to time.

Article 43. Paper and printing of the official documents shall meet the requirement for archives.

Section 8. Administration of official documents

Article 44.The secretariat and its professionals are responsible for the issuing and receipt, checking, stamping, archiving and destruction of official documents.

Article 45. The secretariat shall establish systems or regimes for the handling of official documents in the entire organ.

Article 46. The official documents of the organ at a higher level, except those of top secrecy and those not allowed to have re-productions, may be re-produced with the approval of the person-in-charge or the Director of the General Office of the organ at lower levels. However, the name of the re-producer, the date and number and the scope of the re-production shall be indicated.

Article 47. Distribution in public of an official document shall be approved by the issuing organ. Such a document, if distributed in public, shall have the same effect as of documents formally distributed by the organ.

Article 48. Copies of an official document, if used as a formal document, shall be stamped by the organ making the copies.

Article 49. If an official document is revoked, it shall be deemed as invalid from the very beginning. If an official document is abolished, it shall be deemed as invalid starting from the date of abolition.

Article 50. Official documents which does not have archive value can be destroyed after sorting and approval by the person-in-charge of the General Office.

Article 51. The destruction of secret official documents shall be done at a fixed place and be supervised by at least two persons. Top secret official documents (including coded telegrams) destroyed shall be registered.

Article 52. When two organs merge, the administration of their official documents shall also be merged. When an organ does not exist any more, the archives of its official documents shall be transferred to archive departments.

When an employee is transferred to another post, he shall transfer or return the official documents at his hand in accordance with relevant regulations.

Article 53. The use and administration of coded telegrams shall respect relevant regulations.

Section 9. Miscellaneous

Article 54. Official documents in relation to administrative laws and regulations shall be handled in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Official documents in relation to foreign affairs shall be handled in accordance with the relevant rules formulated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Article 55. Electronic official documents shall be handled in accordance with regulations to be formulated later. Before a uniform regulation on the handling of electronic official documents is formulated, the administrative Departments at all levels may formulate their own temporary regulations.

Article 56. The General Offices of the administrative Departments at all levels are responsible for the supervision of the implementation of this Regulation in regard to issuing documents to an organ at a lower level. The rules for the supervision will be formulated later.

Article 57. This regulation shall enter into force on January 1, 2001. The Procedures for Handling Official Documents in the Administrative Departments of the Government promulgated by the General Office of the State Council and effective since January 1, 1994 shall be abolished at the same day.