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 (PRC).

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 the country quickly disintegrated into the Warlord Era. 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, that 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 PRC, establishes the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the country, highlights the concept of democratic centralism, and states that the PRC 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 operate under a system of people's congresses, community-level self-governance and regional ethnic autonomy.

History

Dynastic China 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 (the "Nineteen Covenants") 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 (CCP). 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".〈 刘少奇1952年10月30日给毛泽东并中央的信 〉，转引自韩大元：《1954年宪法与新中国宪法》（长沙：湖南人民出版社，2004），页55-56。　 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.《史敬棠谈话记录》（1996年6月29日）：“社会主义类型的宪法，毛主席看了1918年苏俄宪法、1936年苏联宪法、东欧国家的宪法，把列宁写的《被剥削劳动人民权利宣言》放在前面，作为第一篇。毛主席从中受到启发，决定在宪法总纲的前面写一段序言。” 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 CCP's constitutional group was responsible for polishing it and obtaining confirmation from the Politburo.《中华人民共和国大典》中国经济出版社1994年6月第1版

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.《中国青年报》1954年9月30日 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."

1975 constitution

After the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Liu Shaoqi, the state chairman appointed by the constitution, was imprisoned. After Liu Shaoqi was dismissed in 1968, the position of state chairman became vacant, and the original constitutional system. In 1970, Mao Zedong proposed to abolish the position of state chairman, which was opposed by many leaders of the CCP, leading the constitutional amendment was deadlocked.参见周恩来传，下册，中央文献出版社 In 1971, after the Lin Biao incident, the abolition of the state chairman became a foregone conclusion, and the work of constitutional amendment made some progress. On 17 January 1975, at the first session of the 4th National People's Congress, the second constitution was formally adopted, which abolished the positions of state chairman and vice chairman.

This constitution was the first to include the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in its main text and incorporated a large number of the institutions of the CCP into the system of state institutions. The 1975 constitution stipulated that the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party commanded the armed forces of the whole country, which led to "the party and the state being indistinguishable". Mao Zedong Thought was also written into the main text of the constitution. The constitution abolished the electoral system, changed the people's congress system from direct election by the people and indirect election by the lower level people's congresses, and implemented the form of "democratic consultation election".程燎原，王人博.赢得神圣权利及其救济通论[M] 387页，青岛:山东人民出版社,1998

1978 constitution