Highlights of draft rules on Civil Code's basic principles

A-Tie, a nursing robot, chats with elders at a nursing home in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, May 17, 2016. The robot is controlled by a mobile phone app and can do much more than remind patients to take their medicine. They can be used to make video calls, virtual consultations, or a portable television. [Photo/VCG]

When minors, persons in a vegetative state, people with mental obstacles and patients with Alzehimer's disease want to join social activities, or if their interests need to be protected, who will decide? The answer is their guardians.

The current civil laws only provide that the guardianship covers minors and mentally ill people. The draft has extended help along the lines of those with mental obstacles or who totally or partially lose their cognitive abilities.

Draft: Adults who are unable to account for their own conducts shall have no capacity for civil conducts.

Interpretation: The change has enlarged the guardianship's application scope, which will give full play to the function of the guardianship system, said Li Shigang, an associate law professor in Fudan University.

Zhang Wei, a lawyer at Beijing Zhi Zhi Law Firm, said the extension of guardianship would effectively protect the elderly's personal and property rights.

"Compared with minors, adults have more rights that are easier to damage. That is why it is important and necessary to write it into the draft," Zhang said.