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China's Changing Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

An organization must have rules, and so must a state. A constitution is a set of general rules, it is the fundamental law.… Constitution-making is a matter of science.Mao Tse-tung On 5 March 1978 the People's Republic of China promulgated its second constitution in little more than three years and the third since its establishment in 1949. What functions does a constitution serve in the Chinese political-legal system? Is it a sham not worth the paper on which it is printed? Is it an artifice of propaganda designed to impress and mislead foreigners? Does it have legal as well as political significance? The 1954 Constitution was not revised for two decades – why then was its 1975 successor so quickly overtaken by events? What are the differences among these basic documents?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1978

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References

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39. Ibid. p. 205. These maxims appeared in Article 12 of the 1936 U.S.S.R. Constitution, and Article 14 of the 1977 U.S.S.R. Constitution reiterates: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work.” Similarly, the concession securing the peasant's garden plot and related activities appeared in the 1936 U.S.S.R. Constitution, Article 7, and is retained in Article 13 of the 1977 version.

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71. Article 36. This power of local congresses to address inquiries to the procuracy, court and revolutionary committee of the same level is an innovation of the 1978 Constitution. The NPC Standing Committee recently adopted a decision authorizing provincial revolutionary committees to select the chief procurator of the province when the provincial people's congress is in recess. “NPC Standing Committee holds second session 23–24 May,” NCNA Domestic (24 May 1978), in FBIS-CHI-78-101 (24 May 1978), E12, E13.Google Scholar

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86. Ibid.

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98. Article 25 (4) (1978 Constitution).Google Scholar

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135. Ibid. p. 199, referring to Article 18 of the 1978 Constitution.

136. Ibid. p. 199.

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141. Chien-ying, Yeh, “Report on the revision of the constitution,” p. 201.Google Scholar

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150. Compare Article 90 of the 1954 Constitution with Article 28 of the 1975 version and Article 45 of 1978.Google Scholar

151. Compare Article 88 of the 1954 version with Article 28 of 1975 and Article 46 of 1978. The latter version is similar to Article 52 of the 1977 U.S.S.R. Constitution and its 1936 predecessor.Google Scholar

152. Article 87 (1954 Constitution); Article 28 (1975 Constitution); Article 45 (1978 Constitution).Google Scholar

153. Article 28 of the 1975 Constitution established the right to strike.Google Scholar

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163. Chien-ying, Yeh, “Report on the revision of the constitution,” p. 198.Google Scholar

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169. Chien-ying, Yeh, “Report on the revision of the constitution,” pp. 211–12.Google Scholar

170. Ibid. p. 179.

171. See Loewenstein, Karl, “Reflections on the value of constitutions in our revolutionary age,”Google Scholarin Zurcher, Arnold J. (ed.), Constitutions and Constitutional Trends since World War II (New York: New York University Press, 1951), pp. 191, 193, 204.Google Scholar

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