Frontier Health and Quarantine Law of the People's Republic of China
(Adopted at the 18th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the
Sixth National People's Congress, 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)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER II QUARANTINE INSPECTION
CHAPTER III MONITORING OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
CHAPTER IV HEALTH SUPERVISION
CHAPTER V HEALTH 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 infections 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 to persons possessing
medical convenience cards.
CHAPTER IV HEALTH SUPERVISION
Article 18. Frontier health and quarantine office 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.
Article 28. 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.
Sixth National People's Congress, 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)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER II QUARANTINE INSPECTION
CHAPTER III MONITORING OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
CHAPTER IV HEALTH SUPERVISION
CHAPTER V HEALTH 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 infections 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 to persons possessing
medical convenience cards.
CHAPTER IV HEALTH SUPERVISION
Article 18. Frontier health and quarantine office 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.
Article 28. 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.