National People's Congress
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- A similar term is "National Congress", which is a less common translation of People's Political Consultative Conference.
The National People's Congress (simplified Chinese: 全国人民代表大会; traditional Chinese: 全國人民代表大會; pinyin: Quánguó Rénmín Dàibiǎo Dàhuì; literally "Pan-National Congress of the People's Representatives"), abbreviated NPC (Chinese: 人大; pinyin: Rén-Dà), is the highest state body and only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. Although the membership of the NPC is still largely determined by the Communist Party of China, since the early 1990s it has moved away from its previous role as a symbolic but powerless rubber-stamp legislature, and has become a forum for mediating policy differences between different parts of the Party and the government. For the NPC to formally defeat a proposal put before them is a rare, but not non-existent event, and the NPC has been quite active in being the forum in which legislation is debated before being put to a vote.
The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China.
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[edit] Functions and Powers
The National People's Congress has been granted the following powers and functions by the constitution of the PRC: [1]
- To amend the constitution
- To supervise the enforcement of the Constitution
- To enact and amend basic laws governing criminal offences, civil affairs and state organs.
- To approve the choice and election of leaders of the PRC in the Executive branch of government, State Council, Central Military Commission, ministries and statutory organs.
- To provide oversight of the state budget, economic and development plans. This also includes establishment and abolishment of provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions and special administrative regions.
- To provide oversight of the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
[edit] Election
Delegates to the National People's Congress are elected for five-year terms via a multi-tiered representative electoral system. Delegates are elected by the provincial people's congresses, who in turn are elected by lower level congresses, and so on through a series of tiers to the local people's congresses which are directly elected by the electorate.
The ruling Communist Party of China maintains effective control over the composition of people's congresses at various levels, especially the National People's Congress, through this system. At the local level, there is a considerable amount of decentralisation in the candidate preselection process, with room for local in-party politics and for participation by a limited proportion of non-Communist Party candidates. However, the structure of the tiered electoral system makes it impossible for a candidate to become a member of the higher level people's congresses without Party approval.
One such mechanism is the limit on the number of candidates in proportion to the number of seats available. At the national level, for example, a maximum of 110 candidates are allowed per 100 seats; at the provincial level, this ratio is 120 candidates per 100 seats. This ratio increases for each lower level of people's congresses, until the village level, the lowest level, where there is no limit on the number of candidates for each seat. However, the Congress website says "In an indirect election, the number of candidates should exceed the number to be elected by 20% to 50%."
Furthermore, the constitution of the National People's Congress provides for most of its power to be exercised on a day-to-day basis by its Standing Committee. Due to its overwhelming majority in the Congress, the Communist Party has total control over the composition of the Standing Committee, thereby controlling the actions of the National People's Congress.
Although Party approval is in effect essential for membership in the NPC, approximately a third of the seats are by convention reserved for non-Communist Party members. This include technical experts and members of the smaller allied parties. While these members do provide technical expertise and a somewhat greater diversity of views, they do not function as a political opposition.
[edit] Delegations representing Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan
A number of delegates to the NPC represent the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, and Taiwan. The delegates from Hong Kong and Macau are elected via an electoral college rather than by popular vote, but do include significant political figures who are residing in the regions.[2] The electoral colleges which elect Hong Kong and Macau NPC members are largely similar in composition to the bodies which elect the chief executives of those regions. The current method of electing SAR delegations began after the handovers of sovereignty to the PRC. Between 1975 and the handovers, both Hong Kong and Macau were represented by delegations elected by the Guangdong Provincial Congress.
The Taiwan delegation is intended to be symbolic of the PRC's claim over the island, but does not include anyone currently residing in Taiwan, but rather includes only people living on the mainland with some connection with Taiwan, such as previous residency or ancestry. The Taiwan delegates are increasingly composed of Taiwanese merchants residing on the mainland and overseas Taiwanese who returned to the mainland. Delegates representing Taiwan are elected by a constituency composed of PRC residents who are or were previously domiciled in Taiwan, or who have ancestry in Taiwan.
[edit] PLA and Overseas Chinese delegations
In addition to these delegations, there are delegations from the People's Liberation Army, who under Chinese law are not considered residents of any region, and a delegation which represents returned overseas Chinese.
[edit] Procedure
The NPC consists of about 3,000 delegates and meets for about two weeks each year at the same time as the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, usually in the Spring. The combined sessions have been known as the two meetings.
The sessions have become media events because it is at the plenary sessions that the Chinese leadership produces work reports. In addition, during NPC sessions the Chinese leadership holds press conferences with foreign reporters, and this is one of the few opportunities Western reporters have of asking unscripted questions of the Chinese leadership.
Between these sessions, power is exercised by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress which contains about 150 members. One important constitutional principle which is stated in Article 8 of the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China is that an action can become a crime only as a consequence of a law passed by the full NPC and that other organs of the Chinese government do not have the power to criminalize activity. This principle was used to overturn police regulations on custody and repatriation and has been used to call into question the legality of reeducation through labor.
Although it has been frequently stated that the NPC has never overturned a resolution proposed by the Chinese Communist Party, this is incorrect. In 1993, the NPC refused to consider constitutional amendments proposed by the Chinese Communist Party on the grounds that non-governmental organizations such as the CCP do not have authority to propose legislation. With respect to proposals by the State Council of the People's Republic of China, the NPC has rejected a bill on maritime safety, and it is no longer uncommon for the State Council to amend or withdraw a bill on account of NPC opposition.
In addition, the NPC now functions as a forum in which legislative proposals are drafted and debated with input from different parts of the government and outside technical experts. Direct and explicit challenges to the rule of the Communist Party of China are not tolerated, but are unlikely due to the control the party center has on delegate selection. However, there are a wide range of issues for which there is no consensus within the Party and over which different parts of the party or government have different opinions. Over these issues the NPC has often become a forum for debating ideas and for achieving consensus.
In practice, although the final votes on laws of the NPC often return a high affirmative vote, a great deal of legislative activity occurs in determining the content of the legislation to be voted on. A major bill often takes years to draft, and a bill sometimes will not be put before a final vote if there is significant opposition to the measure. An example of this is the Property Law of the People's Republic of China which was withdrawn from the 2006 legislative agenda after objections that the law did not do enough to protect state property. China's laws are usually submitted for approval after at most three reviews at the NPC Standing Committee. However, the debate of the Property Law has spanned nine years, receiving a record seven reviews at the NPC Standing Committee and stirring hot debates across the country. The long-awaited and highly contested Property Law was finally approved at the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC) on March 16. Among the 2,889 deputies attending the closing session, 2,799 voted for it, 52 against it, 37 abstained and one didn't vote.
The NPC has a collection of functions and powers, including electing the President of the People's Republic of China and approving the work reports of top officials. Although the NPC has thus far never failed to approve a work report or candidate nominated by the Party, these votes are no longer unanimous. It is considered extremely embarrassing for the approval vote to fall below 70%, which occurred several times in the mid-1990's. More recently, work reports have been vetted with NPC delegates beforehand to avoid this embarrassment.
The drafting process of NPC legislation is governed by the Organic Law of the NPC (1982) and the NPC Procedural Rules (1989). It begins with a small group, often of outside experts, who begin a draft. Over time, this draft is considered by larger and larger groups, with an attempt made to maintain consensus at each step of the process. By the time the full NPC or NPCSC meets to consider the legislation, the major substantive elements of the draft legislation have largely been agreed to. However, minor wording changes to the draft are often made at this stage. The process ends with a formal vote by the Standing Committee of the NPC or by the NPC in a plenary session.
[edit] List of Chairmen of the Standing Committee
- Liu Shaoqi (1954-1959)
- Zhu De (1971 - 6 July 1976)
- From July 6, 1976 to March 5, 1978 the position remained vacant. The duties of the office were collectively executed by the twenty vice-chairmen:
- Wu De (b. 1914 - d. 1995), Song Qingling (f) (b. 1893 - d. 1981), Liu Bocheng (b. 1892 - d. 1986), Wei Guoqing (b. 1913 - d. 1989), Seypidin (b. 1915 - d. 2003), Chen Yun (b. 1905 - d. 1995), Tan Zhenlin (b. 1902 - d. 1983), Li Jingquan (b. 1909 - d. 1989), Ulanhu (b. 1904 - d. 1988), Guo Moruo (b. 1892 - d. 1978), Xu Xiangqian (b. 1901 - d. 1990), Nie Rongzhen (b. 1899 - d. 1992), Zhang Dingcheng (b. 1898 - d. 1981), Cai Chang (f) (b. 1900 - d. 1990), Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme (b. 1910), Zhou Jianren (b. 1888 - d. 1984), Xu Deheng, Hu Juewen, Li Suwen (f), Yao Lianwei, and, from 2 Dec 1976, Deng Yingchao (f) (b. 1904 - d. 1992).
- Ye Jianying (5 March 1978 - 18 June 1983)
- Peng Zhen (1983-1988)
- Wan Li (1988-1993)
- Qiao Shi (1993-1998)
- Li Peng (1998-2003)
- Wu Bangguo (since 2003)
[edit] Plenary Sessions
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- (Chinese) Official website of the NPC
- (Chinese) News on NPC, People's Daily Online
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