BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature is sending supervisory teams to six provinces to ensure the rights of returned overseas Chinese and their families are protected.

    It will be the first time the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) has launched such an exercise in the 15 years since the enactment of a law on protection of the rights of returned Chinese.

    "The rights of the returned Chinese should be well protected, as they make a vital contribution to China's modernization," said NPC vice-chairman Wang Zhaoguo on Thursday.

    China today has more than 30 million returned overseas Chinese and their relatives, most of whom returned in the early 1950s. Their number has grown particularly in the past decade as more Chinese go abroad for study or business.

    From April 9 to mid-May, three teams, headed by senior NPC members, will work in the Guangxi autonomous region and Guangdong provinces in south China, Shaanxi Province in northwest China, and Shanghai municipality, and Fujian and Shandong provinces in east China.

    "The focus should be placed on how local governments and law enforcement departments implement the law, the development of rural farms run by returned overseas Chinese and their families, and the social security network," Wang told a conference outlining goals for the supervisory teams.

    The teams should identify and resolve problems negatively affecting the immediate interests of returned Chinese and their relatives, Wang said. Enditem