Constitution of China


The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is a communist state constitution and the supreme law of the People's Republic of China.
First attempts at a constitutional system in China started near the end of the Qing dynasty, which was overthrown following the 1911 Revolution. The newly-established Republic of China adopted a Provisional Constitution in 1912, which provided a parliamentary system. However, the constitution was largely ineffective as China quickly disintegrated into warlordism. In 1928, the Kuomintang unified most of China and promulgated the Provisional Constitution of the Political Tutelage Period in 1931, intended to remain in effect until the country had been pacified. In 1947, the Kuomintang adopted the Constitution of the Republic of China; however, the constitution was never extensively nor effectively implemented due to the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War.
In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Program, which acted as the temporary constitution after the PRC's foundation in October 1949. On 20 September 1954, the first constitution was adopted by the first session of the 1st National People's Congress. The constitution went through a major revision during the Cultural Revolution in 1975. The constitution went through further revisions in 1978 following the end of the Cultural Revolution. The current constitution was adopted by the 5th National People's Congress on 4 December 1982, which was adopted during the reform and opening up. The 1982 constitution has gone through five subsequent revisions.
The current constitution consists of 4 chapters and 143 articles. It explains the nature and basic policies of the People's Republic of China, highlights the concept of democratic centralism, and states that the People's Republic of China is a "socialist state governed by a people's democratic dictatorship that is led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants". It stipulates the central and local state institutions work under the system of people's congress, and states that China implements basic political systems such as the system of community-level self-governance and the regional ethnic autonomy system. The constitution also lists its basic national policies and establishes the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

History

adopted a constitutional system oscillating between a feudal distribution of power and a centralistic autocracy. The idea of a constitutional monarchy, and a written constitution, became influential towards the end of the 19th century, inspired immediately in large parts by the precedent of the Meiji Constitution in the Empire of Japan. The first attempt towards constitutionalism in China was during the Hundred Days' Reform that took place in 1898 by the young Guangxu Emperor and his reform-minded supporters, but a coup by conservative monarchists loyal to Empress Dowager Cixi ended this effort. The same faction, however, eventually adopted a policy of transitioning towards constitutionalism. However, the first constitutional document was only published in 1908, and the first constitutional document with legal force was not implemented until 1911, after the eruption of the 1911 Revolution, which led to the end of the Qing dynasty the next year.
The Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China was drawn up in March 1912 and formed the basic government document of the Republic of China until 1928. It provided a Western-style parliamentary system headed by a weak president. However, the system was quickly usurped when Song Jiaoren was assassinated by the orders of President Yuan Shikai. Upon Yuan's death in 1916, China disintegrated into warlordism and the Beiyang government operating under the Constitution remained in the hands of various military leaders. The Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek established control over much of China by 1928. The Nationalist Government promulgated the Provisional Constitution of the Political Tutelage Period on 5 May 1931. The Kuomintang intended this constitution to remain in effect until the country had been pacified and the people sufficiently "educated" to participate in democratic government. On 25 December 1946, the Kuomintang ratified the Constitution of the Republic of China during the National Constituent Assembly. However, it was never extensively nor effectively implemented due to the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War in mainland China at the time of the constitution's promulgation.

Common Program

In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Program to replace the ROC constitution, which was not recognized by the Chinese Communist Party. The Common Program declared in its preamble: "The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, representing the will of the people of the whole country, proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic of China and organizes the people's own central government." The Chinese constitutional scholars have maintained that although not a formal constitution, the Common Program acted as a provisional constitution. The program stipulated the composition of the government organs and the new government's military, economic, cultural and educational, ethnic, and foreign policies.

1954 constitution

As early as 1949, when CCP Politburo member Liu Shaoqi secretly visited the Soviet Union and in early 1950, when Chairman Mao Zedong first visited the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had suggested that the CCP prepare for the drafting of a constitution. In 1952, Stalin urged Chairman Liu Shaoqi, who was visiting the Soviet Union, to draft a constitution as soon as possible to solve the problem of legitimacy and "organize a one-party government". It was only at the end of 1952 that the PRC began to prepare for the drafting of a constitution. Scholar Zhang Ming believes that Stalin suggested that the CCP draft a constitution not only to solve the legitimacy problem of the new government itself, but also because he was worried about China's development towards nationalism. He believes that "completely cutting off the possibility of China following the Yugoslav path is the reason why Stalin insisted on China drafting a constitution when the CCP clearly expressed its unwillingness."
On 1 December 1952, the CCP Central Committee issued the Notice on Convening the National Congress of the Party, which stated that the conditions for convening the National People's Congress was met, and preparations were being made for the drafting of the constitution. On 24 December 1952, at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the 1st National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the CCP, proposed to draft the constitution; the CPPCC passed the proposal. On 1 January 1953, the CCP's official newspaper, the People's Daily, listed the drafting of the constitution as one of the three tasks for 1953. On 13 January 1953, the Central People's Government Council decided to form a Constitution Drafting Committee composed of more than 30 people, including Mao Zedong.
In early March 1953, Mao Zedong said in the revised and approved Explanation of the First Draft of the Constitution: "The basic task of the Constitution is to make correct provisions in terms of the system of the state, the power of the state and the rights of the people, so as to provide a legal guarantee for the completion of the general task of the state during the transition period. The main effort of the draft Constitution is primarily focused on this purpose." This meant that this constitution had a certain transitional nature. The preamble of the constitution stipulated that "during the transition period, the state will gradually realize the socialist industrialization of the state and gradually complete the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce."
At the end of 1953, the CCP Central Committee established a drafting group for the constitution. Mao Zedong led core drafting group members Chen Boda, Hu Qiaomu and Tian Jiaying to Hangzhou to draft the constitution. As none of these four were constitutional law graduates, they based their draft on the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the 1952 Romanian Constitution and other constitutions. The drafting group submitted the first draft in February 1954 and reviewed it within the CCP Politburo. On 15 March 1954, the Politburo decided that Chen Boda and others would form a constitutional group to make final revisions to the articles of the first draft of the constitution and submit them to the Central Committee for discussion; a Constitution Drafting Committee Office was formed, with Li Weihan as the secretary-general. The Party's constitutional group was responsible for polishing it and obtaining confirmation from the Politburo.
The entire process that followed was basically carried out according to the schedule stipulated by Mao Zedong in his letter to Liu Shaoqi:
  1. The first draft of the Constitution was completed two months ago, and the draft was then sent to the central comrades for review.
  2. The first draft was reviewed in the first half of February, with Deng Xiaoping and Li Weihan participating. It was then submitted to the Politburo for discussion and preliminary approval.
  3. It was submitted to the Constitution Drafting Committee for discussion in early March, and the discussion was completed and it was initially approved within March.
  4. The Constitution was reviewed and amended again by the Constitutional Committee within April, then submitted to the Politburo for discussion, and finally passed by the Constitutional Drafting Committee.
  5. On May 1, the Constitution Drafting Committee published the draft constitution and submitted it to the people of the whole country for discussion for four months. In September, after necessary revisions based on the opinions of the people, it was submitted to the National People's Congress for final adoption.
About 150 million people participated in the discussion of the first constitution and put forward more than 1.38 million opinions. In addition, more than 5.96 million representatives of the people's congresses of provinces, cities and counties also expressed their opinions. Mao Zedong said, "These opinions can be divided into three parts. One part is incorrect. Another part, although not necessarily very incorrect, is inappropriate and it is better not to adopt it. Since it is not adopted, why collect it? What is the benefit of collecting these opinions? It is beneficial to understand the views on the constitution among these 8,000 people and to make a comparison. The third part is the adopted ones, which is of course very good and very necessary." Based on the opinions collected, the Constitution Drafting Committee revised the original draft and submitted it to the Central People's Government Council for discussion and approval at a temporary meeting, thus forming the draft constitution for review. On 20 September 1954, at the first session of the 1st National People’s Congress, the delegates cast a total of 1,197 votes, with 1,197 votes in favor, and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was adopted unanimously.
This constitution declared China to be a people's democratic state and stipulated that citizens have the freedom of movement and the right to reside, and also includes the clause that all citizens are equal before the law. Mao did not give much importance to the formal constitution. On 21 August 1958, Mao said at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo held in Beidaihe: “We cannot do without laws, but we have our own set of laws. We cannot rely on laws to govern the majority of people. The majority of people must develop good habits. Who can remember so many articles in the Civil Code and the Criminal Code? I participated in the formulation of the Constitution, and I can’t remember it either. Most of our rules and regulations, ninety percent of them, are made by the departments and bureaus. We basically do not rely on those. We mainly rely on resolutions and meetings, which are held four times a year."