Scores of new proposals at annual CPPCC plenary session

More than 100 local members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) are attending the annual plenary session of China's top political advisory body that kicked off this afternoon, according to the CPPCC Shanghai Committee.

So far, 171 proposals have been submitted from these political advisers in advance, along with the text of 10 conference speeches and 18 articles about society's condition and people's opinions.

These proposals focus on many hot topics in fields like elderly care and nursing, health care, education and information security.

Tan Jianfeng, a national CPPCC member from Shanghai, keeps an eye on data safety. In his three proposals, he seeks the creation of a national "data bank" for better regulation of key data, a review system on the management and use of data and enhancing supervision of data security related to smart cars.

According to Tan, among the massive amounts of data, some are unique and non-renewable. He cited personal biological characteristics like faces, fingerprints, DNA and people's medical records. If these data is stolen, they cannot be retrieved or changed, which could be seen as a huge and irreversible risk to people's privacy.

He suggests a national data bank should be set up to allow the nation's professional institutions to manage and control such data and prevent them from being collected by enterprises at will.

"A few companies make profits by selling data they collect, and that's illegal," Tan said. "So the country should have clear guidelines on who can use the data and how that information can be used, as well as how data can be shared and destroyed." He added that the data bank would have regional branches and some developed regions could carry out trial runs of it.

Zhou Hanmin, another national political adviser who is also vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association, proposes facilitating the development of medicine for rare diseases that affect a small percentage of the population. There is a wide range of such diseases that often cause serious conditions requiring lifelong treatment. Because few pharmaceutical companies make drugs for rare diseases, they're sometimes referred to as “orphan drugs."

Zhou thinks the development of drugs for rare diseases hasn't gotten enough attention, and many people afflicted with such diseases still can't get treatment. There are many barriers for such drugs to enter the market, and the high cost of development coupled with low returns frustrates manufacturers.

He suggests the government provide large-scale screenings on rare disease patients and learn about their requirements in order to create appropriate policies. Furthermore, he thinks the government could support research and development, sales and guidance on treatments. as well as improve market access for such medications and protect their patents.