China's Constitution provides that amendments to the constitution "must be
proposed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress or by more
than one-fifth of the deputies to the National People's Congress and adopted by
a vote of more than two-thirds of all the deputies to the Congress."
The following is a chronology of the current draft amendment, as explained
by Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.
* March 27, 2003 - General principles on constitutional amendments were set
at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC
Central Committee. Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, was
appointed head of the Central Constitutional Amendments Group (CCAG).
* April 2003 - All provincial level governments were required to offer
their recommendations.
* May-June 2003 - First version of amendments was completed after hearing
the voices of officials from local governments, ministries, major business
executives and experts on six occasions.
* Aug. 28, 2003 - Senior leaders of the central committees of non-communist
parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and people without
party affiliations voiced their opinions at a meeting called by Hu Jintao,
general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
* Sept. 12, 2003 - Theorists, legal experts, and economists voiced their
opinions at a meeting called by Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing
Committee and head of the CCAG.
* Before Oct. 11, 2003 - Revisions were made on first version of the
proposal for amendments, making it ready for discussion at a plenary session of
the CPC Central Committee.
* Oct. 11-14, 2003 - The draft proposal was adopted at the third plenary
session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in Beijing.
* Dec. 22, 2003 - The draft proposal was made public.
* Dec. 22-27, 2003 - The draft amendment to the Constitution was adopted by
the sixth plenary session of the NPC Standing Committee upon the proposals by
the CPC Central Committee.
* March 8, 2004 - The draft amendments were explained at annualsession of
NPC.
* March 14, 2004 - The draft amendment is to put to voting at NPC session.
