Residents pass by the Shanghai Futures Exchange, located in the Pudong District of East China's Shanghai Municipality, on August 1. Photo: IC

A draft on the law regulating futures trading in China has been sent to the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for primary assessment on Monday. It is the first time that China specifically put forward a legislation to regulation the development of futures market. 

Futures trading was introduced to China in 1990, and the total volume of China's futures market has been topping the world for 11 years, totaling around 800 billion by 2020. China has now the world's biggest futures markets for agricultural commodities, coals, and construction profiles. 

Currently there are four futures exchanges in China, including Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange in Central China's Henan Province, Dalian Commodity Exchange in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Shanghai Futures Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange.

In last November, China introduced new rules to replace the schemes that governed foreign access to the country's onshore capital markets with a unified qualified foreign investor regime. The move is expected to make it easier for international investors to trade in China's futures markets. It also launched a copper contract in Shanghai.