Frontier Health and Quarantine Law of the People’s Republic of China.

Monitoring of Infectious Diseases

Frontier health and quarantine offices shall monitor persons on entry or exit for quarantinable infectious diseases and shall take necessary preventive and control measures.

Frontier health and quarantine offices shall be authorized to require persons on entry or exit to complete a health declaration form and produce certificates of vaccination against certain infectious diseases, a health certificate or other relevant documents.

For persons who suffer from infectious diseases to be monitored, who come from areas in foreign countries where infectious diseases to be monitored are epidemic or who have close contact with patients suffering from infectious diseases to be monitored, the frontier health and quarantine offices shall, according to each case, issue them medical convenience cards, keep them for inspection or take other preventive or control measures, while promptly notifying the local health administration department about such cases. Medical services at all places shall give priority in consultation and treatment to persons possessing medical convenience cards.

Health Supervision

Frontier health and quarantine offices shall, in accordance with state health standards, exercise health supervision over the sanitary conditions at frontier ports and the sanitary conditions of conveyances on entry or exit at frontier ports. They shall:

(1) supervise and direct concerned personnel on the prevention and elimination of rodents and insects that carry diseases;

(2) inspect and test food and drinking water and facilities for their storage, supply and delivery;

(3) supervise the health of employees engaged in the supply of food and drinking water and check their health certificates; and

(4) supervise and inspect the disposal of garbage, waste matter, sewage, excrement and ballast water.

Frontier health and quarantine offices shall have frontier port health supervisors, who shall carry out the tasks assigned by the frontier health and quarantine offices.

In performing their duties, frontier port health supervisors shall be authorized to conduct health supervision and give technical guidance regarding frontier ports and conveyances on entry or exit; to give advice for improvement wherever sanitary conditions are unsatisfactory and factors exist that may spread infectious diseases; and to coordinate departments concerned to take necessary measures and apply sanitary treatment.

Legal Liability

A frontier health and quarantine office may warn or fine, according to the circumstances, any unit or individual that has violated the provisions of this Law by committing any of the following acts:

(1) evading quarantine inspection or withholding the truth in reports to the frontier health and quarantine office;

(2) embarking on or disembarking from conveyances upon entry, or loading or unloading articles such as baggage, goods or postal parcels, without the permission of a frontier health and quarantine office and refusing to listen to the office’s advice against such acts.

All fines thus collected shall be turned over to the state treasury.

If a concerned party refuses to obey a decision on a fine made by a frontier health and quarantine office, he may, within 15 days after receiving notice of the fine, file a lawsuit in a local people’s court. The frontier health and quarantine office may apply to the people’s court for mandatory enforcement of a decision if the concerned party neither files a lawsuit nor obeys the decision within the 15-day term.

If a quarantinable infectious disease is caused to spread or is in great danger of being spread as a result of a violation of the provisions of this Law, criminal responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with Article 178 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China.

The personnel of frontier health and quarantine offices must enforce this Law impartially, perform duties faithfully and promptly conduct quarantine inspection on conveyances and persons upon entry or exit. Those who violate the law or are derelict in their duties shall be given disciplinary sanctions; where circumstances are serious enough to constitute a crime criminal responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with the law.

Where the provisions of this Law differ from those of international treaties on health and quarantine that China has concluded or joined, the provisions of such international treaties shall prevail, with the exception of the treaty clauses on which the People’s Republic of China has declared reservations.

In cases of temporary contact between frontier defence units of the People’s Republic of China and those of a neighbouring country, of a temporary visit at a designated place on the frontier by residents of the border areas of the two countries and of entry or exit of conveyances and persons of the two sides, quarantine inspection shall be conducted in line with the agreements between China and the other country or, in the absence of such an agreement, in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Chinese Government.

Frontier health and quarantine offices shall charge for health and quarantine services according to state regulations.

The health administration department under the State Council shall, in accordance with this Law, formulate rules for its implementation, which shall go into effect after being submitted to and approved by the State Council.

This Law shall go into effect on May 1, 1987. On the same day, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Regulations of the People’s Republic of China promulgated on December 23, 1957, shall be invalidated.