mseap

NEWS

Board View
SUBJECT Chinese national parliament adopts historic constitutional revision
DATE 2018-03-14
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On Sunday, the People’s Republic of China finally made it possible for the president to remain in office over consecutive terms by scrapping the term limits—a bygone political check once instituted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.

 

 

The first constitutional amendment since 2004 includes the addition of President Xi’s “political thought” into the country’s supreme law, raising public opinion across the world that China’s long standing collective leadership system is now coming to an end, if not having been turned into a mere formality.

 

 

The reform is likely to bolster the nation’s political leadership and its grip on the country’s diplomacy, potentially pushing neighboring states like the Republic of Korea, Japan and the larger Southeast Asian theater to reconsider how to best interact with the Asian giant down the road.

 

 

The National People’s Congress agreed to remove from the constitution the two-term limit on the presidency as well as the vice presidency in an almost unanimous vote—with 2,958 ballots in favor of the revision—with only two votes against and three abstaining.

 

 

Plenary meeting of the 13th NPC is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing (Photo: NPC)

 

 

In addition to getting rid of the two-term limit on the presidency and the vice presidency, the NPC delegates in Beijing also said yes to the following:

 

The changed constitution underlined at Sunday’s vote stipulates the undisputed authority of the ruling Communist Party, with the addition of section in its charter highlighting that its leadership is “the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

 

 

The newly refurbished disciplinary organ—along with its subordinate bodies at the various levels of the government—was endorsed as a new body of state governance, not to mention the existing tripartite system of politics across the executive, judicial and prosecutorial capacities.

 

 

Members of the NPC Secretariat take questions at a press conference after the constitutional amendment (Photo: NPC)

 

 

The national body, according to the amendment, will answer to the NPC. The lower-level units will report to their respective legislatures on a more local level which elected them and their higher-level supervisory commissions.

 

 

There was also a constitutional provision on the new anti-graft agency, whose earlier version was headed by China’s former anti-corruption head Wang Qishan.

 

 

The annual session of the NPC started last 4 March 2018 and is scheduled to run through 20 March 2018.

 

 

By MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)