He Baoxiang, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), led a team from the CPPCC National Committee to survey Hainan province from Feb 2 to 5. The survey focused on accelerating the development of the foreign-related rule of law system and capacity.

The team visited several cities including Haikou, Danzhou, and Sanya, where they engaged with law enforcement and judicial departments handling foreign-related matters, legal service providers such as arbitration, mediation, and notarization institutions and law firms, as well as foreign trade enterprises, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the work in this field and gather extensive opinions and suggestions.

The team members stated that developing the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) is a major national strategy and a significant decision made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to deepen reform and opening-up in the new era. Hainan has thoroughly implemented the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans, steadily advanced the development of the FTP, and made notable achievements in strengthening the legal framework and capacity for foreign-related affairs, they noted. These efforts have resulted in a series of innovative and exemplary institutional outcomes and demonstrated clear strategic thinking and a science-based approach, they added.

The team members called on Hainan to seize the historic opportunity to solidly develop the FTP. It is necessary to align local institutional framework with international rules and take the lead in piloting institutional opening-up measures, they noted.

The team urged Hainan to continuously enhance research and exploration of international cooperation mechanisms to foster a first-class international business environment that is market-oriented and law-based.

The CPPCC should fully utilize its role as a specialized consultative body to offer forward-looking, targeted, and actionable opinions and suggestions to support the high-standard development of the Hainan FTP and accelerate the building of the foreign-related legal system and capacity, they said.