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China’s 1982 Constitution was promulgated by the National People’s Congress three decades ago. Since then, this constitution has become an indispensable part of this country in its reform and opening-up process, thanks to which the basis of state governance was established, social shared value and goals were formed and social development and progress were promoted. How can we evaluate the role played by this constitution in China’s social governance during the past three decades? What will be the interrelation between the country’s social transformation and constitutional ruling? What kind of challenged will this constitution face in the following three decades? All those questions deserve our cautious consideration.
I. Constitutional implementation and basic social consensus
Among various merits of the 1982 Constitution, the most important contribution of it, in the author’s view, would be the consolidation of the basis of social cohesion through a formation of social consensus in terms of constitutional ruling, which has been reached thanks to experiences and lessons accumulated during past years, and was considered to be based upon wide social spectrum.
A.Respecting and safeguarding the constitution gradually becoming state value and culture
The 1982 Constitution outlined most basic aspects of the country’s life. It was formulated in accordance with major guidelines and policies since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, meeting as well the political, economic, cultural and social development needs of the new era. On August 18th of 1980, Deng Xiaoping made remarks on an enlarged conference of the central political bureau, saying“we should make our constitution more complete, accurate and thorough in a bid to guarantee the power of the people to administer state institutions as well as business and social entities, to ensure the civil rights enjoyed by the people, to practice regional autonomy in ethnical minority regions, and to improve working mechanism of the national people’s congress. It should also be pinned down in the constitutional text that the state power may not be unduly concentrated.” Deng’s remarks provided guiding principle for the 1982 Constitution. Being both farsighted and cautious, Deng made resolute suggestions to the revision efforts of the previous constitution, elaborating in a full and systematic way on reforms of leadership institution of the party and the state, playing a decisive role in constitutional revision process especially when significant questions popped up in the drafting of the new constitution. Abiding by the constitution and safeguarding the constitution would be a basis guarantee for the stability of state institution and social life. B. Proposing the transformation from “rule by law”to “rule by constitution” through constitutional ruling
On September 15th of 2004, President Hu Jintao made remarks on a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National People’s Congress, pointing out “rule-by-law requires first rule-by-constitution.” As the ruling party, the Communist Party of China values highly the constitution and practice rule-by-law in its ruling activities, which will help justify the ruling position of the party, regulate the function of public power, and safeguard the civic rights of its citizens. The theory of “rule-by-constitution” was adopted by the Communist Party of China in its continuous exploration of historical experience as the ruling party, signifying a transformation of political ideology and pattern of the ruling party.
“Rule-by-constitution” means that the ruling party must administer the country in accordance with constitutional provisions, spirit and principles. Meanwhile, it should also adopt the constitutional logic in tackling various social problems, taking care of different interest groups, meeting social demand, and formulating policies in its pursuit of the goal of “building a socialist country ruled by law”. Rule-bylaw and rule-by-constitution are innately connected. Under the current system of political party, the ruling position of a party could only be justified through a consolidation of rule-by-constitution ideology. The ruling party must pursue its goals within a constitutional framework, and its party constitution must be formulated and implemented in accordance with the constitution and other statutes of the state. In another word, party constitution and regulations should not contravene the constitution and other statutes of the state. Constitutional provisions will be the ultimate, fixed and unified norms to determine if such a contravention would be established.
C. Emphasizing the humanistic basis of the constitution and cultivating a culture of human right
In the past three decades, we insist on the humanistic basis of the constitution, respecting the individuality of the people, as well as their dignity and basic rights. Respecting the dignity of people is the moral foundation of the existence and development of the constitution. Any human being should be independent, dignified and individualistic, as opposed to being without dignity and put in a subordinated position. The general goal of a constitution is to ensure that every individual should be fully respected, and his individuality and dignify being guaranteed. In a traditional society, individuals may live only as subordinated existences, subject unconditionally to the mandates of the state by scarifying their own interests for the protection of that of the state. In such a hierarchical structure of values, interests of the state and group will be emphasized more than that of the individuals with only the interest of the state being regarded as a core of basic values. During the past three decades’ development, people begin to realize that the concept of “person’ in constitutional context has both abstract and concrete connotations. On the one hand, in its abstract aspect, the law requires that any person should enjoy equality under the same law regardless of his gender, nationality, skin color, family background, or property. On the other hand, the constitution may also admit reasonable differentiations between people, granting preferential treatment to a certain group of disadvantaged persons in order to achieve equality in a real sense. In both aspects, our constitution admits that people should be independent as distinctive individuals.
China’s construction of democratic legal system has been making steady growth during the past three decades’of reform and opening-up, the administrative proceedings featured by “citizens suing the government” as well as the state compensation system have been established and put into effect. The constitution has formed a close tie with the political life of the country, manifestations of which could be seen from the democratization of legislation, administration by law, judicial reform and progress, checks of powers, guarantee of the constitutional civil rights, importation of the rule-of-law ideology into the constitutional text, an idea that has been considered one of the three organic parts of democratic politics, together with the leading position of the CPC and people-as-the-master-of-the-country ideology. The proposition of scientific development and “peoplefirst” concept was considered in line with the constitution in terms of respecting and guaranteeing the dignity and rights of citizens, indicating that the spirit as well as logic of constitution will be more and more widely felt in various fields of our social life.
It is worth mentioning that the humanistic spirit of the constitution has been further promoted after a new provision about human right protection entered the constitution in the year of 2004. Our constitution included a separate chapter about the protection of basic civil rights, on the basis of which the once controversial concept of human right was added, indicating a special value relationship between human right and constitution and a transformation of the country’s political ideology. After being adopted as a constitutional principle, the “human right provision”becomes an important yardstick of judging the public powers. Respecting human right requires the abandoning of various misleading trends of though, consolidating a modern constitutional theory putting people’s dignity, value, right and freedom in the first place. An implementing mechanism of constitution should be developed in order to secure the human rights and finalize constitutional norms in the realistic social life, making the constitution the supreme law in real sense. D.Implementation of constitution is the basis of rule-of-law development and improvement of the state institutions
Implementation of constitution is a set of concepts and institutions that are aimed to finalize the constitutional text into our social life and state political life, the purpose of which is to strengthen constitutional constraints on social life and state political life, form a cohesive concept of value, promote the development of the country and safeguard people’s rights.
China has established a constitutional supervisory system with its own characteristics in accordance with the system of National People’s Congress. Constitution’s position as the supreme law was provided in its preamble, offering a unified basis for the function of constitutional supervisory system. The National People’s Congress and its standing committee play a supervisory role in terms of the implementation of the Constitution, on the basis of which a supervisory system featured by a set of regulative norms has been established.
A unitary register-review system has been established in the process of implementing the constitution, offering effective safeguarding mechanism for the unity of the country’s legal system. For instance, article 100 of the constitution states that people’s congresses and their standing committees at provincial and municipal levels could formulate local laws and rules on the premise that they are not in contradiction to the constitution, laws, and administrative regulations.
In order to further regulate the legislative registerreview system, since the introduction of the Law of Legislation in the year of 2000, the State Council has formulated successively Ordinances of Procedure for Formulating Regulations and Rules (2001), Ordinances for Registering Legal Regulations and Rules (2002), etc. The former provides for concrete provisions about a review procedure for legal rules and regulations being put on record in register agencies, empowering at the same time a right for making recommendations to certain competent institutions. For instance, article 35 of the constitution states that state agencies, social organizations, business and public entities, and citizens may submit written review suggestions to the State Council if they think rules and regulations are in contradiction with the laws, administrative rules and regulations, and the responsible legal office with the State Council will study the suggestions. In Working Procedure for Legislative Register-Review of Administrative Regulations and Rules, Local Regulations and Rules, Regulations in Autonomous Regions, Separate Regulations, and Laws of Special Economic Zones, we can see concrete provisions on working procedures of the Legislative Register-Review Office under the Commission of Legal Work of the NPC’Standing Committee. E. Constitution offers a unified foundation for the formation of socialist legal system
In modern society ruled by law, the formation of a legal system is an important symbol of the maturity of a country’s legal institution. Enhancing the legislative effort and establishing a complete and scientific legal system will be an important way to implement the constitution.
A legal system is like a pyramid, and the constitution will be on the top of the hierarchical structure and with the supreme position and highest efficacy. Constitutional review as a function will ensure the basic order within the legal system. Factors like constitutional efficacy, legislative concept, legislative power and its limit, and interest orientation may help decide the state of the legal system. A legal system may suffer from disturbances as a result of impotence of the constitution and legislative inappropriateness. Enhancing the supremacy of the constitution and its position as the basic law and promoting the leading and dominant role of the constitution in the legislative process will fundamentally ensure the basic order the legal field, and help guarantee the uniformity of the state legal system and constitutional order.
II. Challenges faced by current constitutional governance
We should pay due attention to the current problems brought by the 1982 constitution in terms of its impact upon the Chinese society when we are affirming its contributions. Chinese society has been undergoing profound and drastic economic, political and cultural changes. During such a transformation era, more and more constitutional problems concerning public powers and even the ordinary lives of citizens began to surface, bring both opportunities as well as challenges for the development of the constitution. Constitutional problems faced by this society are usually comprehensive and complicated ones. It should be admitted that constitutional rule has not been playing an effective role in the country, and social phenomena in contradiction with the social consensus still exist.
It is a general perception that the rule of law is to follow legal norms and constitutional norms should be fully respected. However, decision-makers would unconsciously evade norms and try to solve problems by following the socalled “unwritten rules”. Every single word or provision in the constitutional text has been mulled over and over by the drafters in accordance with the will of the people. Showing no respect for the constitutional text is a deviation from our constitutional history as well as our constitutional tradition. Abiding by the constitution and laws is a basic means of our social governance. Social justice can only be realized through judicial adjudication, fair dispute-resolution, and fair judgments from the court. A social consensus featured by “resolving all contradictions and disputes within a legal framework” has not been reached yet at current state. Constitutional value and constitutional rule should be further popularized among ordinary citizens who have long been committed to a belief that fairness and justice will be achieved through their petition to higher public authorities and even threatening moves. On the one hand, all government powers should be exerted within a constitutional order in order to better guarantee basic civil rights and offer solid justifications for political powers; on the other hand, judicial authority should be respected and safeguarded to ensure judicial independence in fulfilling the duties and obligations of the judicial organs.
Constitutional implementation requires not only the institutional support but also constitutional awareness among the people and their public servants. It is foremost not a set of techniques, but a set of values and concepts. Techniques are for expediency and would not be expected to be accepted by the people from the bottom of their heart. Constitutional implementation, in its essence, is aimed for the construction of a kind of public life, or a kind of rational expectancy for mass living. Thus, the constitutional consciousness of the whole society is of great importance to the implementation of the constitution.
In conclusion, the current constitutional implementation is faced with various challenges. The function of the constitution in adjusting the social lives has not been given full play, especially in terms of a lack of restriction of the public powers, as a result of which no timely or effective remedy could be provided when the basic civil rights have been encroached upon. There is still a gap between the constitutional implementation, constitutional provisions and the demand of the people.
III. Improvement of the mechanism of constitutional implementation, transformation of the constitutional rule
After three decades of constitutional implementation, People have begun to realize the importance of the constitution, pay attention to the future development of the constitution, and visualize a better life brought by the constitutional implementation. The whole society should give the constitution due regard in order to bring back the national value and consensus that have been embedded in the constitution, through which the social consensus would be established, safeguarded and further developed. Social consensus is a basic requirement for the development of the society, and the constitutional implementation will help to form it. Constitutional implementation is the foundation and process of safeguarding the common social value, and the situation of which will decide whether the stability of the country and the healthy development of the society would be safeguarded on the level of fundamental value during this transformation era. Therefore, we should heed the following aspects. Firstly, adhering to the core value of constitutionalism and safeguarding the socialist constitutional system. We should adhere to the basic concept of the socialist constitutionalism, giving priority to the constitution in governing the state and giving full play of its role as the basic law. Constitutional system is closely related to the historical background, political system and cultural tradition of a country, which we may conclude from a review of different constitutional systems across the globe. Constitutional implementation in China should be in line with the local reality and making good use of local resources. We have established a basic constitutional framework featured by a people’s congress system, against which background a possible constitutional review system might be accordingly established.
Secondly, the ruling party must administer the country in accordance with the constitution, which is a key for constitutional implementation. With the continuous implementation of rule of law, the ruling party has made it a conscious effort to “rule the country in accordance with the constitution. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of the constitutional awareness of the ruling party. The role of the constitution in administering the country should be highly valued by the ruling party.
Thirdly, state organs should play a role in guaranteeing constitutional implementation. The implementation of the constitutional provisions relies heavily on the performance of the state agencies and their personnel that are expected to fulfill their jobs in accordance with the constitution and guard against activities amounting to the abuse of their powers.
Fourthly, civil servants, especially those on higher positions, should play a leading role in implementing and abiding by the constitution, a requirement that has been prescribed by the Public Servant Law.
Fifthly, improving a supervisory mechanism for guaranteeing the implementation of the constitution. In recent years, the National People’s Congress and its standing committee have played a supervisory role in constitutional implementation. However, those efforts are far from enough and usually passive responses to emerging constitutional questions. The constitutional supervisory mechanism should be further improved, for which a constitutional committee under the National People’s Congress is expected to be established to offer effective systemic guarantee for the implementation of the constitution.
I. Constitutional implementation and basic social consensus
Among various merits of the 1982 Constitution, the most important contribution of it, in the author’s view, would be the consolidation of the basis of social cohesion through a formation of social consensus in terms of constitutional ruling, which has been reached thanks to experiences and lessons accumulated during past years, and was considered to be based upon wide social spectrum.
A.Respecting and safeguarding the constitution gradually becoming state value and culture
The 1982 Constitution outlined most basic aspects of the country’s life. It was formulated in accordance with major guidelines and policies since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, meeting as well the political, economic, cultural and social development needs of the new era. On August 18th of 1980, Deng Xiaoping made remarks on an enlarged conference of the central political bureau, saying“we should make our constitution more complete, accurate and thorough in a bid to guarantee the power of the people to administer state institutions as well as business and social entities, to ensure the civil rights enjoyed by the people, to practice regional autonomy in ethnical minority regions, and to improve working mechanism of the national people’s congress. It should also be pinned down in the constitutional text that the state power may not be unduly concentrated.” Deng’s remarks provided guiding principle for the 1982 Constitution. Being both farsighted and cautious, Deng made resolute suggestions to the revision efforts of the previous constitution, elaborating in a full and systematic way on reforms of leadership institution of the party and the state, playing a decisive role in constitutional revision process especially when significant questions popped up in the drafting of the new constitution. Abiding by the constitution and safeguarding the constitution would be a basis guarantee for the stability of state institution and social life. B. Proposing the transformation from “rule by law”to “rule by constitution” through constitutional ruling
On September 15th of 2004, President Hu Jintao made remarks on a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National People’s Congress, pointing out “rule-by-law requires first rule-by-constitution.” As the ruling party, the Communist Party of China values highly the constitution and practice rule-by-law in its ruling activities, which will help justify the ruling position of the party, regulate the function of public power, and safeguard the civic rights of its citizens. The theory of “rule-by-constitution” was adopted by the Communist Party of China in its continuous exploration of historical experience as the ruling party, signifying a transformation of political ideology and pattern of the ruling party.
“Rule-by-constitution” means that the ruling party must administer the country in accordance with constitutional provisions, spirit and principles. Meanwhile, it should also adopt the constitutional logic in tackling various social problems, taking care of different interest groups, meeting social demand, and formulating policies in its pursuit of the goal of “building a socialist country ruled by law”. Rule-bylaw and rule-by-constitution are innately connected. Under the current system of political party, the ruling position of a party could only be justified through a consolidation of rule-by-constitution ideology. The ruling party must pursue its goals within a constitutional framework, and its party constitution must be formulated and implemented in accordance with the constitution and other statutes of the state. In another word, party constitution and regulations should not contravene the constitution and other statutes of the state. Constitutional provisions will be the ultimate, fixed and unified norms to determine if such a contravention would be established.
C. Emphasizing the humanistic basis of the constitution and cultivating a culture of human right
In the past three decades, we insist on the humanistic basis of the constitution, respecting the individuality of the people, as well as their dignity and basic rights. Respecting the dignity of people is the moral foundation of the existence and development of the constitution. Any human being should be independent, dignified and individualistic, as opposed to being without dignity and put in a subordinated position. The general goal of a constitution is to ensure that every individual should be fully respected, and his individuality and dignify being guaranteed. In a traditional society, individuals may live only as subordinated existences, subject unconditionally to the mandates of the state by scarifying their own interests for the protection of that of the state. In such a hierarchical structure of values, interests of the state and group will be emphasized more than that of the individuals with only the interest of the state being regarded as a core of basic values. During the past three decades’ development, people begin to realize that the concept of “person’ in constitutional context has both abstract and concrete connotations. On the one hand, in its abstract aspect, the law requires that any person should enjoy equality under the same law regardless of his gender, nationality, skin color, family background, or property. On the other hand, the constitution may also admit reasonable differentiations between people, granting preferential treatment to a certain group of disadvantaged persons in order to achieve equality in a real sense. In both aspects, our constitution admits that people should be independent as distinctive individuals.
China’s construction of democratic legal system has been making steady growth during the past three decades’of reform and opening-up, the administrative proceedings featured by “citizens suing the government” as well as the state compensation system have been established and put into effect. The constitution has formed a close tie with the political life of the country, manifestations of which could be seen from the democratization of legislation, administration by law, judicial reform and progress, checks of powers, guarantee of the constitutional civil rights, importation of the rule-of-law ideology into the constitutional text, an idea that has been considered one of the three organic parts of democratic politics, together with the leading position of the CPC and people-as-the-master-of-the-country ideology. The proposition of scientific development and “peoplefirst” concept was considered in line with the constitution in terms of respecting and guaranteeing the dignity and rights of citizens, indicating that the spirit as well as logic of constitution will be more and more widely felt in various fields of our social life.
It is worth mentioning that the humanistic spirit of the constitution has been further promoted after a new provision about human right protection entered the constitution in the year of 2004. Our constitution included a separate chapter about the protection of basic civil rights, on the basis of which the once controversial concept of human right was added, indicating a special value relationship between human right and constitution and a transformation of the country’s political ideology. After being adopted as a constitutional principle, the “human right provision”becomes an important yardstick of judging the public powers. Respecting human right requires the abandoning of various misleading trends of though, consolidating a modern constitutional theory putting people’s dignity, value, right and freedom in the first place. An implementing mechanism of constitution should be developed in order to secure the human rights and finalize constitutional norms in the realistic social life, making the constitution the supreme law in real sense. D.Implementation of constitution is the basis of rule-of-law development and improvement of the state institutions
Implementation of constitution is a set of concepts and institutions that are aimed to finalize the constitutional text into our social life and state political life, the purpose of which is to strengthen constitutional constraints on social life and state political life, form a cohesive concept of value, promote the development of the country and safeguard people’s rights.
China has established a constitutional supervisory system with its own characteristics in accordance with the system of National People’s Congress. Constitution’s position as the supreme law was provided in its preamble, offering a unified basis for the function of constitutional supervisory system. The National People’s Congress and its standing committee play a supervisory role in terms of the implementation of the Constitution, on the basis of which a supervisory system featured by a set of regulative norms has been established.
A unitary register-review system has been established in the process of implementing the constitution, offering effective safeguarding mechanism for the unity of the country’s legal system. For instance, article 100 of the constitution states that people’s congresses and their standing committees at provincial and municipal levels could formulate local laws and rules on the premise that they are not in contradiction to the constitution, laws, and administrative regulations.
In order to further regulate the legislative registerreview system, since the introduction of the Law of Legislation in the year of 2000, the State Council has formulated successively Ordinances of Procedure for Formulating Regulations and Rules (2001), Ordinances for Registering Legal Regulations and Rules (2002), etc. The former provides for concrete provisions about a review procedure for legal rules and regulations being put on record in register agencies, empowering at the same time a right for making recommendations to certain competent institutions. For instance, article 35 of the constitution states that state agencies, social organizations, business and public entities, and citizens may submit written review suggestions to the State Council if they think rules and regulations are in contradiction with the laws, administrative rules and regulations, and the responsible legal office with the State Council will study the suggestions. In Working Procedure for Legislative Register-Review of Administrative Regulations and Rules, Local Regulations and Rules, Regulations in Autonomous Regions, Separate Regulations, and Laws of Special Economic Zones, we can see concrete provisions on working procedures of the Legislative Register-Review Office under the Commission of Legal Work of the NPC’Standing Committee. E. Constitution offers a unified foundation for the formation of socialist legal system
In modern society ruled by law, the formation of a legal system is an important symbol of the maturity of a country’s legal institution. Enhancing the legislative effort and establishing a complete and scientific legal system will be an important way to implement the constitution.
A legal system is like a pyramid, and the constitution will be on the top of the hierarchical structure and with the supreme position and highest efficacy. Constitutional review as a function will ensure the basic order within the legal system. Factors like constitutional efficacy, legislative concept, legislative power and its limit, and interest orientation may help decide the state of the legal system. A legal system may suffer from disturbances as a result of impotence of the constitution and legislative inappropriateness. Enhancing the supremacy of the constitution and its position as the basic law and promoting the leading and dominant role of the constitution in the legislative process will fundamentally ensure the basic order the legal field, and help guarantee the uniformity of the state legal system and constitutional order.
II. Challenges faced by current constitutional governance
We should pay due attention to the current problems brought by the 1982 constitution in terms of its impact upon the Chinese society when we are affirming its contributions. Chinese society has been undergoing profound and drastic economic, political and cultural changes. During such a transformation era, more and more constitutional problems concerning public powers and even the ordinary lives of citizens began to surface, bring both opportunities as well as challenges for the development of the constitution. Constitutional problems faced by this society are usually comprehensive and complicated ones. It should be admitted that constitutional rule has not been playing an effective role in the country, and social phenomena in contradiction with the social consensus still exist.
It is a general perception that the rule of law is to follow legal norms and constitutional norms should be fully respected. However, decision-makers would unconsciously evade norms and try to solve problems by following the socalled “unwritten rules”. Every single word or provision in the constitutional text has been mulled over and over by the drafters in accordance with the will of the people. Showing no respect for the constitutional text is a deviation from our constitutional history as well as our constitutional tradition. Abiding by the constitution and laws is a basic means of our social governance. Social justice can only be realized through judicial adjudication, fair dispute-resolution, and fair judgments from the court. A social consensus featured by “resolving all contradictions and disputes within a legal framework” has not been reached yet at current state. Constitutional value and constitutional rule should be further popularized among ordinary citizens who have long been committed to a belief that fairness and justice will be achieved through their petition to higher public authorities and even threatening moves. On the one hand, all government powers should be exerted within a constitutional order in order to better guarantee basic civil rights and offer solid justifications for political powers; on the other hand, judicial authority should be respected and safeguarded to ensure judicial independence in fulfilling the duties and obligations of the judicial organs.
Constitutional implementation requires not only the institutional support but also constitutional awareness among the people and their public servants. It is foremost not a set of techniques, but a set of values and concepts. Techniques are for expediency and would not be expected to be accepted by the people from the bottom of their heart. Constitutional implementation, in its essence, is aimed for the construction of a kind of public life, or a kind of rational expectancy for mass living. Thus, the constitutional consciousness of the whole society is of great importance to the implementation of the constitution.
In conclusion, the current constitutional implementation is faced with various challenges. The function of the constitution in adjusting the social lives has not been given full play, especially in terms of a lack of restriction of the public powers, as a result of which no timely or effective remedy could be provided when the basic civil rights have been encroached upon. There is still a gap between the constitutional implementation, constitutional provisions and the demand of the people.
III. Improvement of the mechanism of constitutional implementation, transformation of the constitutional rule
After three decades of constitutional implementation, People have begun to realize the importance of the constitution, pay attention to the future development of the constitution, and visualize a better life brought by the constitutional implementation. The whole society should give the constitution due regard in order to bring back the national value and consensus that have been embedded in the constitution, through which the social consensus would be established, safeguarded and further developed. Social consensus is a basic requirement for the development of the society, and the constitutional implementation will help to form it. Constitutional implementation is the foundation and process of safeguarding the common social value, and the situation of which will decide whether the stability of the country and the healthy development of the society would be safeguarded on the level of fundamental value during this transformation era. Therefore, we should heed the following aspects. Firstly, adhering to the core value of constitutionalism and safeguarding the socialist constitutional system. We should adhere to the basic concept of the socialist constitutionalism, giving priority to the constitution in governing the state and giving full play of its role as the basic law. Constitutional system is closely related to the historical background, political system and cultural tradition of a country, which we may conclude from a review of different constitutional systems across the globe. Constitutional implementation in China should be in line with the local reality and making good use of local resources. We have established a basic constitutional framework featured by a people’s congress system, against which background a possible constitutional review system might be accordingly established.
Secondly, the ruling party must administer the country in accordance with the constitution, which is a key for constitutional implementation. With the continuous implementation of rule of law, the ruling party has made it a conscious effort to “rule the country in accordance with the constitution. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of the constitutional awareness of the ruling party. The role of the constitution in administering the country should be highly valued by the ruling party.
Thirdly, state organs should play a role in guaranteeing constitutional implementation. The implementation of the constitutional provisions relies heavily on the performance of the state agencies and their personnel that are expected to fulfill their jobs in accordance with the constitution and guard against activities amounting to the abuse of their powers.
Fourthly, civil servants, especially those on higher positions, should play a leading role in implementing and abiding by the constitution, a requirement that has been prescribed by the Public Servant Law.
Fifthly, improving a supervisory mechanism for guaranteeing the implementation of the constitution. In recent years, the National People’s Congress and its standing committee have played a supervisory role in constitutional implementation. However, those efforts are far from enough and usually passive responses to emerging constitutional questions. The constitutional supervisory mechanism should be further improved, for which a constitutional committee under the National People’s Congress is expected to be established to offer effective systemic guarantee for the implementation of the constitution.