China's 1982 Constitution will be amended for the fourth time
when the country's top legislature holds its annual meeting.
The Constitution is the fundamental law of the State with
supreme legal authority.
People of all nationalities, all State organs, the armed forces,
all political parties and public organizations and all enterprises
and undertakings in the country must take the Constitution as the
basic norm of conduct. They have the duty to uphold the dignity of
the Constitution and ensure its implementation.
No law or administrative or local rule or regulations can
contravene the Constitution.
All acts in violation of the Constitution and the law must be
investigated. No organization or individual is above the
Constitution and the law.
The National People's Congress (NPC) and its permanent body --
the NPC Standing Committee -- supervise the enforcement of the
Constitution.
The Constitution's status is also reflected by the peculiar
procedures tied to the process of amending it. Only the NPC, the
country's top legislature, is empowered to amend the
Constitution.
The NPC Standing Committee or more than one-fifth of the
deputies to the NPC have the rights to propose amendments to the
Constitution.
The amendment will not be adopted without approval from a
majority of more than two-thirds of all the deputies to the
Congress.
Other statutes and resolutions are adopted by a simple majority
vote of the deputies to the NPC.
The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC initiated the amendment
process by passing a draft of the amendment in December. The draft
will be submitted to the second plenary session of the 10th NPC
next week. In fact, the current Constitution is the fourth
Constitution in the history of the People's Republic of China since
it was founded on October 1, 1949.
Two days before the founding of the New China, the first plenary
session of the First Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference adopted the Common Programme of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference. It served as a temporary
constitution for the country against a special historical
background.
In September, 1954, right after the people's congress system was
established through general elections, the first plenary session of
the First NPC adopted the country's first official
Constitution.
It fixed the people's democracy and the socialist principle, the
Party's general political lines in the country's transitional
period, basic social system and State system as well as the basic
rights and obligations of citizens.
However, effective implementation of the 1954 Constitution only
lasted three years. It virtually collapsed when the Communist Party
of China launched the campaign against bourgeois Rightists in
1957.
The Fourth NPC adopted the country's second Constitution in
1975, when the Cultural Revolution entered into the ninth year. The
1975 Constitution was poorly drafted because the devastating
Cultural Revolution had drawn the whole nation into political
disorder, social disturbance and economic paralysis.
The third Constitution was adopted in 1978, shortly after the
end of the Cultural Revolution and the country started to bring
order out of extreme chaos.
The 1978 Constitution could hardly play in tune with the
country's progress although it was amended in 1979 and 1980
respectively.
Therefore, the central committee of Communist Party of China
proposed to the presidium of the third plenary session of the Fifth
NPC to make drastic revisions.
It took a special committee on Constitution amendment two years
and three months to draft a new Constitution that fit into China's
real situation.
The draft also went through a four-month-long civil debate
started in April, 1982. The committee revised roughly 100 items in
the draft on the basis of the national debate, which involved
nearly 80 per cent of Chinese citizens.
The 1982 Constitution, China's current Constitution, was enacted
in December 1982 during the fifth plenary session of the 5th
NPC.
Prior to the current Constitution amending process, China's 1982
Constitution was amended in 1988, 1993 and 1999 respectively,
marking major economic and social progress.
Previous amendments covered 17 articles of the Constitution.
The 1988 amendment affirmed the legal status of the private
sector, stating it complements the socialist economy.
The 1993 amendment declared China will practice a market economy
instead of a planned economy.
The 1999 amendment declared China will practice the rule of law
and also upgraded the private sector from "complement of the
socialist economy" to "an important component" of the country's
market economy.
This amendment is widely regarded as milestone in private sector
development.
Analysts said the fourth Constitution amendment will surmount
previous three amendments in both quantity and spectrum.
The draft amendment to the Constitution is expected to inject
stronger protection of private property rights, clarify that the
country respects and safeguards human rights, and strengthen social
security among other things.
More important, Professor Hu Jinguang of Renmin University of
China, said this amendment is being conducted amid increased
constitutionalism awareness among the public.
(China Daily March 3, 2004)