BEIJING - Chinese lawmakers Sunday started deliberating a new draft amendment to the country's Criminal Law.

The draft Amendment XI to the Criminal Law, which involves six major areas of updates, was submitted to an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

The updates include some 30 revised or newly added provisions, mainly focusing on stepping up the prevention of and penalties for workplace safety crimes, improving stipulations for penalizing food and drug safety crimes and stipulations for financial crimes, strengthening legal protection of corporate property rights and strengthening legal safeguards for public health, according to the draft.