The people's congress system is the fundamental political system of the
People's Republic of China (PRC), the organizational form of the state power of
the people's democratic dictatorship in China, and the system of government of
the country.
The system most directly reflects the nature of the PRC, indicating the
status of the Chinese people of various ethnicities as masters in the country's
political life. The NPC is the highest institution through which the Chinese
people exercise their state power.
In 1953, China held people's congresses at different levels. In1954, the
First National People's Congress (NPC) was convened, marking the establishment
of the people's congress system. The NPC exercises legislative power, amends the
Constitution and supervises its enforcement, formulates and amends basic
statutes and other laws; elects and decides on leading personnel of state-level
administrative, judicial, procuratorial and military bodies,and has the right to
recall them; examines and decides on fundamental, long-term and key issues.
All administrative, judicial, procuratorial and military organs and other
state-level institutions are responsible to the NPC and supervised by it.
The NPC Standing Committee, the permanent organ of the NPC, is elected by
the NPC and exercises the legislative power of the state together with the NPC.
Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Ye Jianying, Wan Li, Qiao Shi and Li Peng successively
served as chairmen of past NPC Standing Committees. Wu Bangguo is chairman of
the Tenth NPC Standing Committee.
Among the nine terms of the NPC, eight have special committees except the
Fourth NPC, which was in sessions during the period of the "Great Cultural
Revolution" (1966-1976).
The Tenth NPC has established nine special committees: the Financial and
Economic Committee; Ethnic Affairs Committee; Law Committee; Committee for
Internal and Judicial Affairs; Education, Science Culture and Health Committee;
Foreign Affairs Committee; Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee; Environment and
Resources Protection Committee; and Agricultural and Rural Affairs
Committee.These committees are permanent bodies under the leadership and
supervision of both the NPC and its Standing Committee.
The NPC's delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is known as
"the NPC Delegation." On Dec. 8, 1983, the Third Meeting of the Sixth NPC
Standing Committee decided to join the IPU. In April 1984, the IPU Council's
134th meeting made an official announcement to accept the NPC Delegation as its
member.
The NPC Delegation is aimed to promote mutual understanding andfriendly
exchanges with parliamentary members of different countries, develop friendship
and cooperation with peoples of different countries, and safeguard world peace.
Legislative powers of NPC, its Standing
Committee
The legislative powers of the National People's Congress (NPC) and its
Standing Committee are defined by the Constitution of China.
According to the Constitution, the NPC exercises the following legislative
powers:
-- To amend the Constitution (In China, amendments to the Constitution are
to be proposed by the Standing Committee of the NPC or by more than one-fifth of
all deputies to the NPC and adopted by a majority affirmative vote of more than
two-thirds of all the deputies);
-- To enact and amend basic statutes concerning criminal offenses and civil
affairs;
-- To enact and amend statutes concerning State organs, which generally
refer to various kinds of organic laws; and
-- To enact and amend basic statutes concerning other matters, such as laws
on election, ethnicity and marriage.
The NPC Standing Committee exercises the following powers:
-- To enact and amend statutes other than those that must be enacted by the
NPC;
-- To enact, when the NPC is not in session, partial supplements and
amendments to statutes enacted by the NPC provided that they do not contravene
the basic principles of these statutes;
-- To interpret the Constitution and statutes;
-- To annul administrative rules and regulations, decisions andorders of
the State Council that contravene the Constitution or the statutes; and
-- To annul local regulations or decisions of the organs of state power of
provinces, autonomous regions and centrally-administered municipalities that
contravene the Constitution and the statutes or the administrative rules and
regulations. Enditem
NPC's power of supervision
The nature of the power of supervision of the National People's Congress
(NPC) and its Standing Committee is to impose restrictions on other national
organs of state power and ensure that the government be run in accordance with
the will of the people.
The power of supervision of the NPC and its Standing Committee, as defined
by the Constitution, includes supervising the enforcement of the Constitution
and laws and supervising the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's
Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
To be more specific, the NPC and its Standing Committee supervise the
enforcement of the Constitution, while people's congresses and their standing
committees at local levels ensure that the Constitution, laws, administrative
regulations and decisions by people's congresses and their standing committees
at higher levels be abided by and enforced in their respective regions.
Another aspect of the supervisory function of the NPC and its Standing
Committee is to see whether or not the work of the State Council, the Supreme
People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate accords with the
Constitution and laws, whether or not they appropriately implement the
principles and policies of the Communist Party of China and the State, whether
or not their work accords with the fundamental interests of the people, and
whether or not relevant officials do their jobs competently.
The role of supervision also includes examining and approving the national
or local economic and social development plan and its implementation at the
national or local level; examining and approving the fiscal budget and its
implementation at the national or local level; and electing, appointing and
dismissing government officials.
