Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Archives

(Adopted at the 19th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on June 16,1995; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on the Revision of the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Archives adopted at the 40th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on December 10,1997; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on the Revision of the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Archives adopted at the 16th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on November 25,2004; amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision on Amending Several Local Laws and Regulations in this Municipality adopted at 21st session of the Standing Committee of the 13th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress on September 17, 2010; amended for the fourth time in accordance with the Decision on Amending Certain Local Regulations adopted at the 41st Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on November 23, 2017)

Chapter I  General Provisions

Article 1

With a view to strengthening the construction of the archives undertaking, effectively protecting and using the archives, serving the national economy and social development, these Regulations are formulated on the basis of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Archives and its implementation rules, and in the light of the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

Article 2

These Regulations shall apply to the administration and use of the archives of legal entities, other organizations and individual persons of this Municipality, except for those otherwise provided by the State.

Article 3

The term “archives” mentioned in these Regulations refers to the historical records that, taking the form of various kinds of writing, charts, audio-video tape, etc. are of preserving value to the State and society, and are directly formed when legal entities, other organizations and individual persons engage in activities of politics, military, economy, science, technology, culture, and religion.

Article 4

The people’s government at all levels in this Municipality shall lead the archives undertaking of their own administrative region, and shall combine the construction of the archives undertaking with the national economy and social development scheme of their own regions, attach importance to the publicity and education of the archives, and ensure the archives organizations, the authorized size of personnel and the funds in accordance with the need of the development of the archives undertaking.

Article 5

This Municipality and each district shall set up archives administrative departments.

The municipal archives administrative department is the competent administrative department of the archives undertaking of this Municipality that is responsible for the implementation of these Regulations, and makes overall planning of the archives undertaking of this Municipality in accordance with law, organizes and coordinates, and unifies the system, supervision and direction.

The district archives administrative department is in charge of the archives undertaking of the very district, and exercise the supervision and direction over the archives undertaking of the very district, and professionally accepts the supervision and direction of the municipal archives administrative department.

Article 6

The other municipal and district administrative departments shall, according to their own scope of administration, take charge of the archives work of their own setups, and professionally accepts the supervision and direction of the archives administrative department of the same level.

The legal entities and other organizations shall strengthen the administration on archives work, provide the archives work with necessary conditions, and safeguard the normal carrying-out of the archives work.

Article 7

The archives work shall adhere to the principles of “unified leadership, graded administration, upholding the completeness, accuracy and safety of the archives, and being convenient for the use by the society and keeping State secrets”.

Chapter II  Archives Organizations

Article 8

The local State archives include the comprehensive archives and specialized archives of public nature.

The comprehensive archives is the organization that is set up according to the administrative area, collects and keeps with care permanently various categories of archives, and provides the society the access to their use.

The specialized archives are the organization that collects and keeps for good the archives of specific field or special carrier, and provides the society the access to their use.

Article 9

The departmental archives is the organizations that collects and keeps with care in a long term the archives formed by its own department and its subordinate units, and provides the access to their use within a certain scope.

Article 10

The set-up of the comprehensive archives shall get the approval of the people’s government of the same level; the set-up of the specialized archives and departmental archives, shall first pass the examination and verification of the municipal archives administrative department and then get the approval of the Municipal People’s Government.

Article 11

The organizations of the town and township people’s government that take charge of the archives work administrate the archives of its own archives, and exercise the supervision and direction over the archives work of other organizations of the town and township concerned.

The town/township people’s governments shall provide personnel to engage in the archives work.

Article 12

The archives setups of the legal entities and other organizations shall administrate their own archives, direct the secretarial departments and business departments to do the work of collecting, sorting out and filing of the documents and material, and exercise the supervision and direction over the archives work of the subordinate units.

The personnel engaged in archives work that is provided by the legal entities and other organizations shall be kept relatively stable.

The legal entities and other organizations shall, in accordance with the requirements of the archives work, organize the personnel of the archives work to attend the training on archives business

Article 13

The archives organization of the municipal administrative departments may formulate their own business standards and technical norms of the professional archives work, and implement them upon the approval of the municipal archives administrative department.

Article 14

The personnel of the archives work shall be devoted to their duties, abide by the disciplines, and possess the professional knowledge.

Article 15

The personnel engaged in such intermediary business as appraising, or evaluating the archives, shall possess the basic theoretical knowledge of archives and professional knowledge of appraisal of the value of archives, and of grade evaluation of archives.

Chapter III  Archives Administration

Article 16

The material formed when the legal entities and other organizations and their working personnel are carrying out their duties, shall be fully collected and sorted out by the secretarial departments or business departments, and be regularly sent to the archives setups for centralized administration.”

The administrative normative documents formulated by the departments of the Municipal People’s Government and the agencies of the Municipal People’s Government that conduct the administrative management work according to law, shall be sent to the Municipal Comprehensive Archives while reporting for the record; the administrative normative documents formulated by a district people’s government and its departments and town/township people’s government, shall be sent to the local district comprehensive archives while reporting for the record.

The material that shall be placed on file according to the provisions of the State and the municipal archives administrative department shall not be refused to be placed on file or be pocketed as one’s own.

Article 17

In case the information involves the alteration of the administrative divisions, the set-up, alteration and cancellation of legal entities and other organizations, the approval of major construction projects and major science and technology research projects, and the municipal or district activities that has significant influence, relevant departments shall provide the archives administrative department of the same level with such information in the prescribed time limit.

The archives formed in the nationwide conferences, international conferences that are organized or undertaken by this Municipality or the district of this Municipality and with significant influence both at home and abroad (hereinafter referred to as important conference), and the archives formed in such important activities as politics, economics, science, technology, culture or religion in the administrative region of Shanghai Municipality (hereinafter referred to as important activities) shall be timely handed over to the municipal, or district comprehensive archives in accordance with the provisions.

The municipal or district archives administrative departments shall timely provide direction and supervision to the set-up of the archives and the acceptance work of the archives of important conference and important activities.

Article 18

The archives that reflect the important activities in the administrative region of Shanghai Municipality are the archives to be mainly collected and safekept.

The specific scope of the mainly collected and safekept archives shall be determined by the municipal or district archives administrative departments, and the relevant legal entities, other organizations or individual persons shall be notified thereof.

Article 19

The legal entities, other organizations or individual persons that take care of the mainly collected and safekept archives shall, within 60 days from the date of receiving the notice, conduct the registration with the municipal or district archives administrative departments. In case the situation changes after the registration, the alteration or cancellation of the registration shall be conducted with the original registration department within 60 days from the date of changing.

The municipal or district archives administrative departments shall, after the acceptance of the registration, notify the relevant archives and the keeper of the archives of the situation of registration identification.

Article 20

In case that the construction project, science and technology research, technical innovation, renewal of important equipment and other projects of the legal entities and other organizations need check and acceptance, and appraisal, the archives agency of this organization shall, jointly with the archives that has the duty to receive the archives, exercise the check and acceptance of the project in accordance with the provisions.

When the major construction projects and major science and technology research project determined by the municipal or district people’s government enter the process of check and acceptance and appraisal, the municipal or district archives administrative department shall organize the archives setups of the competent administrative department of the project and the archives that has the duty of accepting such archives according to provisions to carry out the check and acceptance of the project, and issue the jointly-signed document of approval for the check and acceptance of the archives.

The project that does not have the check and acceptance of the archives, or fails to pass the check and acceptance of the archives, shall not conduct the completion check and acceptance, and appraisal.

Article 21

The archives of the State organs, state-owned enterprises and institutions, and other state-owned organizations shall be owned by the country, and shall be listed in the administration scope of state-owned assets.

The archives owned by the non-stated-owned organizations shall be owned by the organization concerned, unless otherwise provided by the State or this Municipality.

The archives formed in an individual person’s activities of non-official duties or the archives acquired through such legal ways as inheritance, presented as gift, etc. shall be owned by the individual person concerned.

Article 22

The collection scope of the archives of the comprehensive archives shall be formulated, promulgated and implemented by the municipal archives administrative departments.

The collection scope of the archives of the specialized archives and departmental archives shall be drawn up by the municipal professional competent administrative department, and be implemented upon the approval of the municipal archives administrative department.

The collection scope of the archives of the enterprises and institutions archives shall be drawn up by the enterprises and institution concerned, and be implemented upon the approval of the municipal archives administrative department.

Article 23

The legal entities and other organizations shall hand over the archives to the relevant archives in accordance with the following provisions:

1. The archives that belong to the collection scope of the municipal comprehensive archives shall be handed over to the municipal comprehensive archives when it reaches 20 years from the date of forming;

2. The archives that belong to the collection scope of the district comprehensive archives shall be handed over to the district comprehensive archives when it reaches 10 years from the date of forming;

3. The archives that belong to the collection scope of the specialized archives shall be handed over to the specialized archives when it reaches six months from the date of forming;

4. The archives that belong to the collection scope of the departmental archives or enterprises and institutions archives, shall be handed over to the departmental archives or the enterprises and institutions archives before the next June 30 from the date of forming; and

5. The archives of the cancelled agencies, or the archives of the major conferences or important activities organized or undertaken by the ad hoc organizations that are within the collection scope of the comprehensive archives shall be handed over to the comprehensive archives that has the task of accepting within 6 months from the date of the cancellation of the agency, or the end of the conference, or activities.

The archives that are within the collection scope of comprehensive archives, and may be made open to the society at any time according to law, may be handed over to the comprehensive archives in advance.

Those archives with high professional knowledge or needing to be kept secret may extend the time limit of being handed over to the archives, with the approval of the archives administrative departments of the same level.

Article 24

The archives in the departmental archives that belong to the archives that need permanent keeping shall be handed over to the municipal comprehensive archives when they have been kept for 30 years in the departmental archives, unless otherwise provided by the State.

Article 25

The archives and other archives agencies shall set up and improve the archives administration system, allocate the specialized storehouses and facilities appropriate for the keeping of the archives, adopt modernized advanced technical equipment, and accept, sort out and keep the archives in accordance with the provisions of the State and this Municipality, prevent the archives from being damaged, faded, mouldy, and lost.

The act of destroying the archives without authorization is prohibited.

Article 26

Where the conditions of keeping are bad, and may cause insecurity or serious damages to the archives, the archives may be handled in accordance with the following provisions:

1. The archives listed in the collection scope of the archives shall be accepted by the relevant archives in advance upon the examination and approval of the municipal or district archives administrative departments; and

2. For other archives, the archives administrative departments shall supervise and urge the keeper of the archives to improve the condition of keeping, or upon the consent of the keeper concerned, the comprehensive archives may take care of the archives for the keeper concerned or purchase the files, among which, the comprehensive archives may requisite by purchase, upon the approval of the municipal archives administrative department, the non-stated-owned archives that involves the national interests and security.

Article 27

The legal entities, other organizations and individual persons are encouraged to donate, or deposit the archives they own to the comprehensive archives.

The municipal or district people’s government shall award the one that donates important or precious archives to the State.

Article 28

No organization or individual person can give as a present, exchange, or sell the state-owned archives, unless otherwise provided by the State. In case there is a need to give as a present, exchange or sell the copies the organizations or individual persons at home or abroad, the approval of the municipal competent administrative department and the municipal archives administrative department shall be obtained.

For the archives or their duplicated copies not owned by the State, the owner of the archives may deposit or sell the archives to the State Archives, and shall not sell the archives or give the archives as a gift to foreigners or foreign organizations in violation of State regulations.

The act of giving as a present, exchanging or selling the non-state-owned archives or giving as a present, exchanging or selling the copies of the archives shall abide by the provisions on national secret, and shall not harm the interests of the State, collective groups or other citizens.

Article 29

In case the legal entities, other organizations and individual persons need to carry, transport, or mail the archives or their copies that comply with the provisions of the State out of the country, they shall get the approval from the municipal archives administrative department.

For the archives or their copies that leave the country and shall be subject to the approval of the State archives administrative department in accordance with law, the examination and approval formalities shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the State.

Article 30

In case the legal entities, other organizations and individual persons dissent on the definition of the archives and the collection scope of the archives, the municipal or district archives administrative department shall, in accordance with its jurisdiction, make the decisions, and notify the parties concerned in writing.

Chapter IV  The Use and Opening of the Archives

Article 31

The State Archives shall, in accordance with the provisions of the State, make the archives open to the society by stages and in batches, and publicize regularly the category of the archives that are to be opened.

The municipal and district comprehensive archives are the concentrated consulting place for open information of the people’s government of the same level, and these archives shall provide the governmental information initiatively opened by the governmental organizations and kept by these archives for the convenient access of the public.

Article 32

The legal entities, other organizations and individual persons may use the opened archives by presenting the ID, employee’s card, letter of introduction, or other legal certificates.

The act of using the opened archives of this Municipality by the foreign organizations or individual persons, shall be subject to the introduction of relevant municipal competent administrative departments and the consent of relevant archives.

Article 33

In case the legal entities, other organizations and individual persons use the unopened archives of the archives, or the archives kept by other organizations, they shall get the approval of the relevant archives or the relevant organizations, and abide by the provisions on national secrets, and shall not copy, duplicate the archives or release the contents of the archives without authorization.

Article 34

The archives deposited in the archives belong to the depositor. In case the archives need to provide the public the access to the archives, the consent of the depositor shall be acquired.

Article 35

The archives and other archives setups shall provide conditions for the use of the archives, and provide service.

In case there is a need of using the archives for the national interests or public interests, the archives and other archives setups shall provide them.

Article 36

In the use of the archives, no one shall tamper, forge, damage or destroy, or lose the archives.

Article 37

The archives may be made open to the society through such media as newspapers, magazines, books, audio and video publications, electronic publications, microforms, computer information network, broadcasting stations, television stations, etc. and in such forms as setting up and printing, displaying, exhibiting, reading out in public, publicizing through network, broadcasting, etc.

Article 38

The archives kept by the archives shall be made open by the archives. Where it is necessary, the consent of the organizations that form the archives shall be acquired, or the approval of their competent administrative department shall be acquired.

The archives kept by the State organs, mass organizations and state-owned enterprises and institutions shall be made open by the organizations that keep the archives, and the making-open of the important archives shall get the approval of their competent administrative department.

The archives of other organizations and individual persons shall be made open by the owner of the archives, except for those that shall be reported to the municipal or district archives administrative departments for approval in accordance with the provisions of laws, and regulations.

The making open of the archives to the public shall abide by the provisions on national secrets, and shall not harm the interests of the State, collective group, or other citizens. No organization or individual person shall arbitrarily make open the archives that do not belong to him/her/it.

Article 39

When the archives and other archives setups provide the important, precious archives for use, they shall use the microforms or copies of other form to substitute the origin. If the copies have the signature or seal or mark of the legal representatives of the archives collection organizations, they are of the equal authenticity as the original archives.

Article 40

The archives and other archives setups shall strengthen the research and sorting-out of the archives. The archives and other archives setups that have the conditions shall compile and publish the archives and historical materials.

Article 41

The municipal and district comprehensive archives shall set up the network for archives information, and provide services to citizens, legal entities and other organizations.

The specialized archives, departmental archives, enterprises and institutions’ archives and other archives setups shall regularly report the catalogue of the archives to the municipal or district comprehensive archives, unless otherwise provided by the State.

Article 42

The archives shall collect charges, according to the provisions of the State and this Municipality, for providing the archives for use.

When the organizations and individual persons use the archives handed over or donated by themselves, the archives shall provide such archives free of charge and in priority.

Chapter V  Legal Liabilities

Article 43

The municipal or district archives administrative department or relevant organizations shall give administrative sanctions to the person(s) directly liable for any one of the following acts:

1. to damage, or lose the state-owned archives;

2. to provide, copy, open, destroy the state-owned archives without authorization;

3. to tamper or forge the archives;

4. to sell, donate, or exchange archives without authorization;

5. to sell the archives or give the archives as a gift to foreigners or foreign organizations in violation of State regulations;

6. to disclose the contents of archives;

7. to set up local State Archives and departmental archives without authorization;

8. to refuse the unified administration on archives in accordance with the provisions;

9. to refuse to hand over the material that should be filed or the archives that should be kept in archives to the archives;

10. to refuse to accept the material that should be filed or the archives that should be kept in archives;

11. to fail to go through the archives registration, or alteration formalities within the prescribed time limit;

12. to carry out the check and appraisal upon completion of the key construction projects and major science and technology research projects that have no acceptance check on archives or fail to pass the acceptance check on archives;

13. not to adopt any measure though fully aware of the fact that the archives are in danger, thus causing losses to the archives; or

14. to neglect the duties of the personnel engaged in archives work and cause losses to the archives.

Article 44

In the use of the archives of the archives, in case there exist the illegal acts mentioned in Item 1, 2, or 3 of the preceding Article, the municipal or district archives administrative departments shall give t warnings, and, in accordance with the value and amount of the relevant archives, may cumulatively impose a fine of between not less than 10000 yuan but not more than 100000 yuan on an organization, or a fine of between not less than 500 yuan but not more than 5000 yuan on an individual person.

In case the enterprises and institutions or individual persons have done such illegal acts mentioned in Item 4, or 5 of the preceding Article, the municipal or district archives administrative departments shall give warnings, and, in accordance with the value and amount of the relevant archives, may cumulatively impose a fine of between not less than 10000 yuan but not more than 100000 yuan on an organization, or a fine of between not less than 500 yuan but not more than 5000 yuan on an individual person. In case there are any illegal gains, the illegal gains shall be confiscated, and the archives that are sold or donated may be requisitioned by purchase in accordance with law.

Article 45

In case the wrongful act is in violation of these Regulations and causes damages or losses to the archives, the wrongdoer shall make compensation; among them, in case the wrongful act causes damages or losses to the archives owned by the State, the municipal or district archives administrative department shall order the person directly liable to make compensation.

Article 46

On the one who carries, transports or mails the archives or their copies out of the country without authorization, the Customs shall impose penalties in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Customs Law of the People’s Republic of China. The archives or their copies that are confiscated according to law shall be handed over to the municipal archives administrative department.

Article 47

In case the wrongful act is in violation of these Regulations and constitutes a crime, the wrongdoer shall be prosecuted for criminal liabilities.

Article 48

If the party concerned disagrees with the specific administrative act made by the municipal and district archives administrative department, he/she may apply for administrative reconsideration, or lodge an administrative lawsuit according to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administrative Reconsideration or the Administrative Litigation Law of the People’s Republic of China.

Where the party concerned does not apply for administrative reconsideration, nor lodges an administrative lawsuit, nor performs the specific administrative act within the prescribed time period, the municipal and district archives administrative department that has made the specific administrative act may apply to the people’s court for enforcement.

Article 49

The archives administrative personnel shall present the Certificate of Administrative Enforcement when they conduct the enforcement of supervision and examination.

A person who refuses or obstructs an archives administrative personnel in the performance of his or her official duties in violation of the Punishment Law of People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration shall be dealt with by the public security department according to law; if the wrongful act constitutes a crime, the wrongdoer shall be prosecuted for his or her criminal liability according to law.

Article 50

In case the personnel directly in charge of the archives administrative departments and other personnel directly responsible neglect their duties, abuse their power, engage in malpractice for selfish ends, they shall be given administrative punishments by their work unit or the competent department at a higher level in accordance with law.  If the wrongful act constitutes a crime, the wrongdoer shall be prosecuted for criminal liabilities.

Chapter VI  Supplementary Provisions

Article 51

These Regulations shall be effective as of October 1, 1995.