"Capitalism" in China's constitution

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Sun Jan 31 16:59:16 PST 1999


31/01/1999, updated at 9:00am

China to Put Deng Xiaoping Theory into

Constitution

China is to add Deng Xiaoping Theory into its

Constitutional Law in a bid to enhance the legal

position of the Theory when the deputies discuss

amendments of the Constitution during the upcoming

Second Plenary Session of the Ninth NPC to

convened on March 5.

According to a proposal submitted by the CPC

Central Committee to the just ended 7th meeting of

the Standing Committee of the Ninth NPC, a total of

six major revisions will be made to the Constitution.

One of the most important amendments is to put

"Deng Xiaoping Theory" and "develop a socialist

market economy" into the Preface of the

Constitution, according to the proposal.

In addition, the phrase "is currently" in the sentence

of "China is currently in the primary stage of

socialism" in the Preface will be revised into "will be

over a long period of time".

The proposal was discussed at the 7th meeting of the

Ninth NPC Standing Committee and became a bill of

the NPC Standing committee, and the bill will be

submitted to the upcoming Second Session of the

Ninth National People's Congress.

This marks the third time China revises its

Constitution since it was adopted in 1982. China

made amendments to part of the Constitution in 1988

and in 1993.

Other important amendments will be made under the

guidelines of "ruling the country by law" and

"developing a socialist market economy".

According to the proposal, the following will be added

to the original articles:

In Article 5, "the People's Republic of China should

implement the principle of ruling the country by law,

governing the country according to law and making it

a socialist country ruled by law" will be added.

Contents to be added in Article 6 is, "in the primary

stage of socialism, the country should uphold the

basic economic system in which the public ownership

is dominant and diverse forms of ownership develop

side by side, and it should also uphold the distribution

system with distribution according to work remaining

dominant and a variety of modes of distribution

coexisting."

At the meantime, "rural collective economic

organizations should carry out the two-tier operation

system that combines unified management with

independent management on the basis of the

household responsibility contract system with

remuneration linked to output" will be added to

Article 8.

Amendments in Article 11 will be: "Non-public sector

comprising self-employed and private businesses

within the domain stipulated by law is an important

component of the country's socialist market

economy", and "The country should protect the

legitimate rights and interests of self-employed and

private enterprises, and the country should also

exercise the guidance, supervision and management

over them according to law."

According to the proposal, the wording of

"counter-revolutionary activities" in Article 28 will be

changed into "crimes endangering the state security".

Analysts here believed that the amendments to be

made to the Constitution is the quintessence of Deng

Xiaoping Theory and the most successful experience

China has gained in its reforms and opening-up drive

over the past two decades.

Tian Jiyun, member of the CPC Central Committee's

Political Bureau and member of the CPC Central

committee's group on revision of the Constitution told

the NPC Standing committee meeting that the

principle in revising the Constitution is that "we will

only make amendments that are deemed necessary

and relevant conditions are ripe."

The revision group is led by Li Peng, member of the

Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the

CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the NPC

Standing Committee.

Li commented on the draft amendments saying the

additions which were already affirmed in the report of

the 15th National Congress of the CPC in late 1997

have proved to be "completely correct" in practice,

and should be part of the nation's Constitution.

He said that "timely and meticulous amendments to

the Constitution will make it better meet the needs of

reality and help maintain the authority of the

Constitution."

Such revisions, after adoption, shall have

"far-reaching influences upon the development of the

socialist market economy and the construction of a

socialist democratic political system, and will generally

advance the cause of socialism with Chinese

characteristics," the top legislator said.

The lawmakers approved the decision to submit the

draft to the NPC plenary session with 124 approvals,

no objection and one abstention.

The majority of legislators agreed that the proposed

amendments to the Constitution are necessry and in

line with the desires of all the Chinese people.

Copyright by People's Daily Online

Email:English at peopledaily.com.cn

Chris Burford wrote:


> The following story has been posted by CNN based on Reuters and APP,
> heavily editing and contextualising a Xinhua report. The Xinhua website is
> not very accessible when I tried it this morning.
>
> Can anyone get the original because this is a situation where western
> reports are likely to be heavily slanted. Most obviously, "Private
> enterprise", which presumably here includes the large town and village
> cooperative sector, is translated as capitalism.
>
> We also need context from a Marxist point of view of any attempt to explain
> this development. What did the CPC actually say?
>
> Chris Burford
>
> London
>
> PS I would appreciate information on the best internet sources on China.
>
> _______________________________________________________________
>
> China enlarging role of capitalism in its constitution
>
> BEIJING (CNN) -- The Chinese Communist Party on Saturday
> proposed landmark constitutional amendments that would give private
> enterprise a key role, the official Xinhua news agency said.
>
> The party's 193-member decision-making Central Committee also elevated
> the rule of law, and the capitalist theories of late supreme leader Deng
> Xiaoping would have the same status as those of Marx, Lenin and Mao
> Tse-tung, Xinhua said.
>
> The draft amendments were expected to be approved by a full session of the
> National People's Congress, or parliament, scheduled to begin March 5, the
> news agency said.
>
> Political analysts said the amendments illustrate the growing belief that
> China
> needs to boost its private sector to spur growth.
>
> The private sector would be an "important component" of the socialist
> economy under state ownership, Xinhua quoted the amendments as saying.
>
> The current constitution describes private enterprise as "complementing" the
> socialist economy under state ownership.
>
> The amendments still refer to the public sector as the mainstay of the
> economy, analysts said.
>
> Economists have argued that despite 20 years of reform, China's economy is
> too reliant on the state sector, which was built up under the years of Mao
> Tse-tung, who died in 1976.
>
> Deng's reforms in 1979 led China to the revolutionary decision to dump
> Soviet-style central planning. Deng's capitalist-style reforms would become
> the creed of the world's largest communist nation.
>
> Deng, who died in 1997, coined the phrase "socialism with Chinese
> characteristics" to justify his un-Marxist concepts such as stock markets and
> private enterprise.
>
> China has about 960,700 private businesses, which employ 13.5 million
> non-state sector accounts for about 75 percent of gross domestic product.
>
> However, the state sector sucks up two-thirds of all bank lending.
>
> In April China's chamber of commerce, the All-China Federation of Industry
> and Commerce, submitted a motion to parliament pushing for legal
> protection of private property in communist China.
>
> China's private sector has flourished under Deng's reforms, but communist
> authorities have not granted it full legal protection and still ban private
> ownership of land.
>
> The amendments also call for rule of law, Xinhua said.
>
> China under Mao was ruled by a handful of leaders of the Communist Party;
> even the constitution was subordinate to the policies of the party. Beijing
> has
> been pushing the rule of law.
>
> But that does not mean it will allow any organized opposition. Authorities
> have detained at least five democracy campaigners in recent days in
> intensified efforts to crush dissent, a rights group reported Saturday. The
> detained are mainly members of the opposition China Democracy Party.



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