Constitution of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2018)

Constitution of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2018)
Constitution of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2018)

Announcement of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China No.1

March 11, 2018

(Adopted at the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on December 4, 1982 and promulgated on that same date. Amended according to the Amendment to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (1988) adopted at the First Session of the Seventh National People's Congress on April 12, 1988, the Amendment to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China(1993) adopted at the First Session of the Eighth National People's Congress on March 29, 1993, the Amendment to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (1999) adopted at the Second Session of the Ninth National People's Congress on March 15, 1999, the Proposed Amendments to Constitution of the People's Republic of China adopted at the Second Session of the Tenth National People's Congress on March 14, 2004, and the Amendment to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China adopted at the First Session pf the 13th National People's Congress on March 11, 2018)

Contents
Preamble
Chapter I – General Principles
Chapter II – Fundamental Rights and Obligations of Citizens
Chapter III – State Institutions
Section 1 – The National People's Congress
Section 2 – The President of the People's Republic of China
Section 3 – The State Council
Section 4 – The Central Military Commission
Section 5 – Local People's Congresses at All Levels and Local People's Governments at All Levels
Section 6 – Autonomous Organs of Ethnic Autonomous Areas
Section 7 – Commissions of Supervision
Section 8 – People's Courts and People's Procuratorates
Chapter IV – The National Flag, National Anthem, National Emblem and the Capital

Preamble

China is one of the countries with the longest histories in the world. The Chinese people of all ethnic groups jointly created its magnificent culture and have a proud revolutionary tradition.

After 1840, feudal China gradually became a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country. The Chinese people, wave upon wave, waged heroic struggles for national independence and liberation and for democracy and freedom.

In the 20th century, momentous historical changes took place in China.

The Revolution of 1911, led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, abolished the feudal monarchy and gave birth to the Republic of China. However, the historic mission of the Chinese people to oppose imperialism and feudalism was not yet accomplished.

In 1949, after engaging in protracted, arduous and tortuous struggles, armed and in other forms, the Chinese people of all ethnic groups led by the Communist Party of China with Chairman Mao Zedong as its leader finally overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, won a great victory in the New Democratic Revolution, and founded the People's Republic of China. The Chinese people thus secured power and became masters of their own country.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, our country gradually achieved the transition from a new democratic society to a socialist society. The socialist transformation of private ownership of the means of production has been completed, the system of exploitation of man by man abolished, and a socialist system established. The people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants, which in essence is a dictatorship of the proletariat, has been consolidated and developed. The Chinese people and the Chinese People's Liberation Army have defeated imperialist and hegemonist aggression, sabotage and armed provocations, safeguarded national independence and security, and strengthened national defense. Major achievements have been made in economic development. An independent and relatively complete socialist industrial system has now basically been established, and agricultural output has markedly increased. Significant advances have been made in education, science, culture and other fields, and education about socialist thought has made notable progress. The lives of the people have been considerably improved.

Both the victory in China's New Democratic Revolution and the successes in its socialist cause have been achieved by the Chinese people of all ethnic groups under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought by upholding truth, correcting errors, and surmounting many difficulties and obstacles. Our country will long remain in the primary stage of socialism. The fundamental task for our country is to concentrate on achieving socialist modernization along the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We the Chinese people of all ethnic groups will continue, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, to uphold the people's democratic dictatorship, stay on the socialist road, carry out reform and opening up, steadily improve the socialist institutions, develop the socialist market economy and socialist democracy, improve socialist rule of law, apply the new development philosophy, and work hard in a spirit of self-reliance to modernize step by step the country's industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology and promote coordinated material, political, cultural-ethical, social and ecological advancement, in order to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In our country the exploiting class, as a class, has been eliminated, but class struggle will continue to exist within a certain scope for a long time to come. The people of China must fight against those domestic and foreign forces and elements that are hostile to and undermine our country's socialist system.

Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China. It is the sacred duty of all the Chinese people, including our fellow Chinese in Taiwan, to achieve the great reunification of the motherland.

The cause of building socialism must rely on workers, peasants and intellectuals and unite all forces that can be united. Through the long process of revolution, development and reform, a broad patriotic united front has formed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with the participation of other political parties and people's organizations and including all socialist working people, people involved in building socialism, patriots who support socialism, and patriots who support China's reunification and are dedicated to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This united front will continue to be consolidated and developed. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is a broadly representative organization of the united front, and has played a significant historical role. In the future, it will play an even more important role in the country's political and social life and its friendly foreign activities, in socialist modernization and in safeguarding the unity and solidarity of the country. The system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China will continue and develop long into the future.

The People's Republic of China is a unified multiethnic state founded by the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. Socialist ethnic relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony are established and will continue to be strengthened. In the struggle to safeguard ethnic unity, we should oppose major ethnic group chauvinism, which mainly refers to Han chauvinism, and local ethnic chauvinism. The state makes every effort to promote the shared prosperity of all the country's ethnic groups.

The achievements of China's revolution, development and reform would have been impossible without the support of the world's people. The future of China is closely bound up with the future of the world. China pursues an independent foreign policy, observes the five principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual nonaggression, mutual noninterference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence, keeps to a path of peaceful development, follows a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up, works to develop diplomatic relations and economic and cultural exchanges with other countries, and promotes the building of a human community with a shared future. China consistently opposes imperialism, hegemonism and colonialism, works to strengthen its solidarity with the people of all other countries, supports oppressed peoples and other developing countries in their just struggles to win and safeguard their independence and develop their economies, and strives to safeguard world peace and promote the cause of human progress.

This Constitution affirms, in legal form, the achievements of the struggles of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and stipulates the fundamental system and task of the state. It is the fundamental law of the state and has supreme legal force. The people of all ethnic groups, all state organs and armed forces, all political parties and social organizations, and all enterprises and public institutions in the country must treat the Constitution as the fundamental standard of conduct; they have a duty to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and ensure its compliance.

Chapter I General Principles

Article 1 The People's Republic of China 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.
The socialist system is the fundamental system of the People's Republic of China. Leadership by the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is prohibited for any organization or individual to damage the socialist system.

Article 2 All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people.
The organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at all levels.
The people shall, in accordance with the provisions of law, manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings, and social affairs through various channels and in various ways.

Article 3 The state institutions of the People's Republic of China shall practice the principle of democratic centralism.
The National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at all levels shall be created through democratic election and shall be responsible to the people and subject to their oversight.
All administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory and procuratorial organs of the state shall be created by the people's congresses and shall be responsible to them and subject to their oversight.
The division of functions and powers between the central and local state institutions shall honor the principle of giving full play to the initiative and motivation of local authorities under the unified leadership of the central authorities.

Article 4 All ethnic groups of the People's Republic of China are equal. The state shall protect the lawful rights and interests of all ethnic minorities and uphold and promote relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony among all ethnic groups. Discrimination against and oppression of any ethnic group are prohibited; any act that undermines the unity of ethnic groups or creates divisions among them is prohibited.
The state shall, in light of the characteristics and needs of all ethnic minorities, assist all ethnic minority areas in accelerating their economic and cultural development.
All areas inhabited by ethnic minorities shall practice regional autonomy, establish autonomous organs, and exercise the power to self-govern. All ethnic autonomous areas are inseparable parts of the People's Republic of China.
All ethnic groups shall have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages and to preserve or reform their own traditions and customs.

Article 5 The People's Republic of China shall practice law-based governance and build a socialist state under the rule of law.
The state shall safeguard the unity and sanctity of the socialist legal system.
No law, administrative regulation or local regulation shall be in conflict with the Constitution.
All state organs and armed forces, all political parties and social organizations, and all enterprises and public institutions must abide by the Constitution and the law. Accountability must be enforced for all acts that violate the Constitution or laws.
No organization or individual shall have any privilege beyond the Constitution or the law.

Article 6 The foundation of the socialist economic system of the People's Republic of China is socialist public ownership of the means of production, that is, ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by the working people. The system of socialist public ownership has eradicated the system of exploitation of man by man, and practices the principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his work."
In the primary stage of socialism, the state shall uphold a fundamental economic system under which public ownership is the mainstay and diverse forms of ownership develop together, and shall uphold an income distribution system under which distribution according to work is the mainstay, while multiple forms of distribution exist alongside it.

Article 7 The state sector of the economy, that is, the sector of the socialist economy under ownership by the whole people, shall be the leading force in the economy. The state shall ensure the consolidation and development of the state sector of the economy.

Article 8 Rural collective economic organizations shall practice a two-tiered system of both unified and separate operations with household contract management as its basis. Rural economic cooperatives - producer, supply and marketing, credit and consumer cooperatives - are part of the socialist economy under collective ownership by the working people. Working people who belong to rural collective economic organizations shall have the right, within the scope prescribed by law, to farm cropland and hillsides allotted to them for their private use, engage in household sideline production, and raise privately owned livestock.
The various forms of cooperative economic activities in cities and towns, such as those in the handicraft, industrial, building, transport, commercial and service trades, shall all be part of the socialist economy under collective ownership by the working people.
The state shall protect the lawful rights and interests of urban and rural collective economic organizations and shall encourage, guide and assist the growth of the collective sector of the economy.

Article 9 All mineral resources, waters, forests, mountains, grasslands, unreclaimed land, mudflats and other natural resources are owned by the state, that is, by the whole people, except for the forests, mountains, grasslands, unreclaimed land and mudflats that are owned by collectives as prescribed by law.
The state shall ensure the rational use of natural resources and protect rare animals and plants. It is prohibited for any organization or individual to seize or damage natural resources by any means.

Article 10 Land in cities is owned by the state.
Land in rural and suburban areas is owned by collectives except for that which belongs to the state as prescribed by law; housing sites and cropland and hillsides allotted for private use are also owned by collectives.
The state may, in order to meet the demands of the public interest and in accordance with the provisions of law, expropriate or requisition land and furnish compensation.
No organization or individual shall unlawfully transfer land through seizure, sale and purchase, or in any other form. Land-use rights may be transferred in accordance with the provisions of law.
All organizations and individuals using land must use it in an appropriate manner.

Article 11 Non-public economic sectors that are within the scope prescribed by law, such as individually owned and private businesses, are an important component of the socialist market economy.
The state shall protect the lawful rights and interests of non-public economic sectors such as individually owned and private businesses. The state shall encourage, support and guide the development of non-public economic sectors and exercise oversight and regulation over non-public economic sectors in accordance with law. 

Article 12 Socialist public property is sacred and inviolable.
The state shall protect socialist public property.
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