Frontier Health and Quarantine Law of the Peoples Republic of China

Adopted at the 18th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress on December 2, 1986

Promulgated by Order No. 46 of the President of the People's Republic of China on December 2, 1986 And effective as of May 1, 1987 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Quarantine Inspection

Chapter III Monitoring of Infectious Diseases

Chapter IV Health Supervision

Chapter V Legal Liability

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions





Chapter I General Provisions



Article 1 This Law is formulated in order to prevent infectious diseases from spreading into or out of the country,

to carry out frontier health and quarantine inspection and to protect human health.

Article 2 Frontier health and quarantine offices shall be set up at international seaports, airports and ports of entry at

land frontiers and boundary rivers (hereinafter referred to as "frontier ports") of the People's Republic of China. These

offices shall carry out the quarantining and monitoring of infectious diseases, and health inspection in accordance with

the provisions of this Law.

Health administration departments under the State Council shall be in charge of frontier health and quarantine work

throughout the country.

Article 3 Infectious diseases specified in this Law shall include quarantinable infectious diseases and infectious

diseases to be monitored. Quarantinable infectious diseases shall include plague,

cholera, yellow fever and other infectious diseases determined

and announced by the State Council.

Infectious diseases to be monitored shall be determined and

announced by health administration departments under the State

Council.

Article 4 Persons, conveyances and transport equipment, as

well as articles such as baggage, goods and postal parcels

that may transmit quarantinable infectious diseases, shall

undergo quarantine inspection upon entering or exiting the

country. No entry or exit shall be allowed without the

permission of a frontier health and quarantine office.

Specific measures for implementation of this Law shall be

stipulated in detailed regulations.

Article 5 On discovering a quarantinable infectious disease

or a disease suspected to be quarantinable, a frontier health

and quarantine office shall, in addition to taking necessary

measures, immediately notify the local health administration

department; at the same time, it shall make a report to the

health administration department under the State Council by

the most expeditious means possible, within 24 hours at the

latest. Post and telecommunications departments shall give

priority to transmissions of reports of epidemic diseases.

Messages exchanged between the People's Republic of China and

foreign countries on the epidemic situation of infectious

diseases shall be handled by the health administration

department under the State Council in conjunction with other

departments concerned.

Article 6 When a quarantinable infectious disease is

prevalent abroad or within China, the State Council may order

relevant sections of the border to be blockaded or adopt other

emergency measures.





Chapter II Quarantine Inspection



Article 7 Persons and conveyances on entering the country

shall be subject to quarantine inspection at designated places

at the first frontier port of their arrival. Except for

harbour pilots, no person shall be allowed to embark on or

disembark from any means of transport and no articles such as

baggage, goods or postal parcels shall be loaded or unloaded

without the health and quarantine inspector's permission.

Specific measures for the implementation of this Law shall be

stipulated in detailed regulations.

Article 8 Persons and conveyances exiting the country shall

be subject to quarantine inspection at the last frontier port

of departure.

Article 9 When foreign ships or airborne vehicles anchor or

land at places other than frontier ports in China, the persons

in charge of the ships or airborne vehicles must report

immediately to the nearest frontier health and quarantine

office or to the local health administration department.

Except in cases of emergency, no person shall be allowed to

embark on or disembark from the ship or airborne vehicle, and

no articles such as baggage, goods and postal parcels shall be

loaded or unloaded without the permission of a frontier health

and quarantine office or the local health administration

department.

Article 10 When a quarantinable infectious disease, a disease

suspected to be quarantinable or a death due to an

unidentified cause other than accidental harm is discovered at

a frontier port, the relevant department at the frontier port

and the person in charge of the conveyance must report

immediately to the frontier health and quarantine office and

apply for provisional quarantine inspection.

Article 11 According to the results of an inspection made by

quarantine doctors, the frontier health and quarantine office

shall sign and issue a quarantine certificate for entry or

exit to a conveyance either uncontaminated by any

quarantinable infectious disease or already given

decontamination treatment.

Article 12 A person having a quarantinable infectious disease

shall be placed in isolation by the frontier health and

quarantine office for a period determined by the results of

the medical examination, while a person suspected of having a

quarantinable infectious disease shall be kept for inspection

for a period determined by the incubation period of such

disease.

The corpse of anyone who died from a quarantinable infectious

disease must be cremated at a nearby place.

Article 13 Any conveyance subject to entry quarantine

inspection shall be disinfected, deratted, treated with

insecticides or given other sanitation measures when found to

be in any of the following conditions:

(1) having come from an area where a quarantinable infectious

disease is epidemic;

(2) being contaminated by a quarantinable infectious disease;

or

(3) revealing the presence of rodents which affect human

health or insects which are carriers of disease.

Apart from exceptional cases, when the person in charge of the

foreign conveyance refuses to allow sanitation measures to be

taken, the conveyance shall be allowed to leave the frontier

of the People's Republic of China without delay under the

supervision of the frontier health and quarantine office.

Article 14 A frontier health and quarantine office shall

conduct sanitation inspections and disinfect, derat, treat

with insecticides or apply other sanitation measures to

articles such as baggage, goods and postal parcels that come

from an epidemic area and are contaminated by a quarantinable

infectious disease or may act as a vehicle of a quarantinable

infectious disease.

A consignor or an agent for the transportation of a corpse or

human remains into or out of the country must declare the

matter to a frontier health and quarantine office; transport

thereof, in either direction across the border, shall not be

allowed until sanitary inspection proves satisfactory and an

entry or exit permit is given.





Chapter III Monitoring of Infectious Diseases



Article 15 Frontier health and quarantine offices shall

monitor persons on entry or exit for quarantinable infectious

diseases and shall take necessary preventive and control

measures.

Article 16 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.

Article 17 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 of persons possessing medical convenience cards.





Chapter IV Health Supervision



Article 18 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.

Article 19 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.





Chapter V Legal Liability



Article 20 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.

Article 21 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.

Article 22 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.

Article 23 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.





Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions



Article 24 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.

Article 25 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.

Article 26 Frontier health and quarantine offices shall charge for health and quarantine services according to state

regulations.

Article 27 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.