The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) March 9 submitted draft amendments to the Constitution to the current Second Session of the Ninth NPC for examination.
The draft proposes that"Deng Xiaoping Theory" and "governing the country according to law and building a socialist country governed according to law" be added to the Constitution.
At the same time, the draft proposes changing the status and function of the non-public sector such as self-employed and private businesses in China's economy from being "a complement to the socialist public economy" to "an important component of the socialist market economy".
Tian Jiyun, a vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, made explanations to the draft amendments at March 9 meeting, which was attended by 2,781 NPC deputies.
He said that the present Constitution adopted in 1982 is a good one and has played an important role in the country's political, economic and social life, and it was revised twice in 1988 and 1993 with the constant development of China's reforms and opening up.
The principle for amendments is that "we will only make amendments that are deemed necessary and relevant conditions are ripe," Tian said.
Based on the report of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a wide-ranging collection of the opinions and suggestions among people from all walks of life, the CPC Central Committee put forward a proposal on revising part of the Constitution to the NPC Standing Committee on January 22 this year, according to sources of the NPC.
The NPC Standing Committee discussed the proposal by the CPC Central Committee and tabled the draft amendments to the Constitution to the NPC session for examination according to law, the sources said..
The draft includes six amendments to the Constitution, according to the vice- chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.
The first is to add "Deng Xiaoping Theory" to the Constitution and is, accordingly, to change "in line with the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics" to " along the road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics", and "China is currently in the primary stage of socialism" will be revised into "will be over a long period of time in the primary stage of socialism". The content of "develop a socialist market economy" will be added into the Constitution, according to Tian.
Tian said the amendment shows the guiding role of Deng Xiaoping Theory in China's socialist modernization drive and reflects the consensus and the will of the Chinese people.
Deng Xiaoping Theory is the succession and development of Mao Zedong Thought, a guiding theory for the Chinese people to realize the socialist modernization through reforms and opening up, and a new stage of the development of Marxism in China, he said.
Tian stressed that China must hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and use Deng's theory to guide the work in all fields in the process of reforms, opening up and the modernization drive, and this is an unshakable conclusion drawn by the Chinese people of all nationalities from the history and reality.
He said: "To enshrine Deng Xiaoping Theory in the Constitution is of great immediate and far-reaching historic significance to the victorious advance of the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Explaining the addition of governing the country according to law into the Constitution, Tian said that to govern the country according to the law is a basic principle for the ruling CPC in running the country and an important guarantee for the country's long tranquility.
"Enshrining 'governing the country according to law and building a socialist country governed according to law' is of great significance to adhering the basic principle of governing the country according to law, to constantly improving the socialist legal system, to developing socialist democratic politics, and promoting the economic restructuring and construction," Tian said.
The draft suggests adding into the Constitution: "In the primary stage of socialism, the state upholds the basic economic system in which the public ownership is dominant and diverse forms of ownership develop side by side, and upholds the distribution system with distribution according to work remaining dominant and a variety of modes of distribution coexisting."
Tian explained that the clear definition on the basic economic and distribution systems in the primary stage of socialism in the Constitution is conducive to upholding and improving the above-mentioned systems and further emancipating and developng productive forces in the reforms, opening up and socialist modernization drive.
According to the guidelines of the 15th CPC National Congress, the draft adds the stipulation: "The rural collective economic organizations follow the two-tier operations system that combines unified and separate operations on the basis of the household contract operations," and accordingly, abolishes the wording "the responsibility system mainly based on household contract that links remuneration to output" in the existing Constitution.
Tian said that the two-tier operation system that combines unified and separate operations is a operation system that combines the unified collective operations with household contract operations within the rural collective economic organizations, and the household contract operations constitute the basis of the two- tier operation system, he explained.
Tian added that enshrining the two-tier operation system into the Constitution is conducive to ensuring the system to stay long and unchanged and to be constantly improved and to ensuring the healthy development of the collective economy in rural areas.
Regarding the status and role of the non-public economy, the draft proposes to add into the Constitution: "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, accordingly, abolish the wording that the self-employed and private businesses are "a complement to the socialist public economy" in the current Constitution.
Meanwhile, the draft suggests to change other wording of the same article to "The state protects the legitimate rights and interests of the self-employed and private businesses, and exercises guidance, supervision and management over them."
Thus, Tian said, the status and role of the non-public economy in China's socialist market economy are further clearly defined and this is conducive to its healthy development, Tian explained.
The draft suggests to revise the wording of "counter- revolutionary activities" in Article 28 into "crimes jeopardizing the state security".
Tian said that in 1997's revision of the Criminal Law, "counter-revolutionary crimes" was revised to "crimes of jeopardizing state security", and therefore, it is completely necessary to revise the wording of "counter-revolutionary activities" in the Constitution.
March 10,1999,
Source: www.people.com.cn
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