National People's Congress

The current National People's Congress can trace its origins to the First National Congress of the Chinese Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies. This was held on 7 November 1931, in Ruijin, Jiangxi, on the 14th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution—with a subsequent Soviet Congress taking place in Fujian on 18 March 1932, the 61st Anniversary of the Paris Commune. The official Second National Congress took place from 22 January to 1 February 1934. During the event, only 693 deputies were elected with the Chinese Red Army taking 117 seats. In 1945, at the conclusion of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the CCP and the Kuomintang held a Political Consultative Conference with the parties holding talks on political reforms. This was included in the Double Tenth Agreement, which was implemented by the Nationalist government, who organized the first Political Consultative Assembly from 10 to 31 January 1946. Representatives of the Kuomintang, CCP, Young China Party, and China Democratic League, as well as independent delegates, attended the conference in Chongqing, a temporary capital of the Republic of China during the war. A second Political Consultative Conference took place in September 1949, inviting delegates from various friendly parties to attend and discuss the establishment of a new state (PRC). This conference was then renamed the People's Political Consultative Conference. The first conference approved the Common Program, which served as the de facto constitution for the next five years. The conference approved the new national anthem, flag, capital city, and state name, and elected the first government of the People's Republic of China. It was a de facto legislature of the PRC during the first five years of existence. In 1954, the Constitution transferred this function to the National People's Congress. ==Organization==

The NPC meets for about two weeks each year at the same time as the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, usually in the spring. The combined sessions have been known as the Two Sessions (Lianghui).'''' Between these sessions, NPC's power are exercised by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. During the Two Sessions, the NPC and the CPPCC hear and discuss reports from the premier of the State Council, the president of the Supreme People's Court, and the prosecutor general. The Presidium presides over the daily affairs of the Congress during its plenary session days, determining its daily schedule, decides whether to list a delegate's bill on the agenda, hear deputy deliberation reports and decides whether to put an item to vote, nominates the candidates for the top state offices, and organizes the constitutional oath of office ceremonies. Its functions are defined in the Organic Law of the NPC, but not how it is composed. Standing Committee The NPC Standing Committee is the permanent organ of the NPC, elected by the legislature to meet regularly as opposed to once a year. It consists of a chairman, vice chairpersons, a secretary-general, as well as regular members. NPCSC membership is often full-time and carries a salary, and members are not allowed to simultaneously hold positions in executive, judicial, prosecutorial or supervisory posts. • Ethnic Affairs Committee • Constitution and Law Committee • Supervisory and Judicial Affairs Committee • Financial and Economic Affairs Committee • Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee • Foreign Affairs Committee • Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee • Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee • Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee • Social Development Affairs Committee These are organized in like manner as the Standing Committee. Working organs A number of working organs have also been established under the Standing Committee to provide support for the day-to-day operation of the NPC. These include: • General Office • Credentials Committee • Legislative Affairs Commission • Budgetary Affairs Commission • Hong Kong Basic Law Committee • Macao Basic Law Committee • Deputies Affairs Commission == Powers and responsibilities ==

Under the constitution, the NPC is the supreme state organ of power in China, and all four Chinese constitutions have granted it a large amount of lawmaking power. According to Chinese legal scholar Zhou Fang, "[t]he powers of the National People's Congress as the [SSOP] are boundless, its authority extends to the entire territory of the country, and, if necessary, it can intervene in any matter which it finds it requisite to do so." The presidency, the State Council, the PRC Central Military Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the National Supervisory Commission are all formally under the authority of the NPC. The constitution guarantees the CCP a leadership role, and the NPC therefore does not serve as a forum of debate between government and opposition parties as is the case with Western parliaments. This has led to the NPC being described as a rubber stamp legislature or as only being able to affect issues of low sensitivity and salience to the CCP. Legislation typically passes quickly, but there are notable examples where laws do not get through the NPC, and negative votes have become more commonplace since its inception. According to academic Rory Truex of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, NPC "deputies convey citizen grievances but shy away from sensitive political issues, and the government in turn displays partial responsiveness to their concerns." According to Austin Ramzy, writing for The New York Times, the NPC "is a carefully crafted pageant intended to convey the image of a transparent, responsive government." One of the NPC's members, Hu Xiaoyan, told BBC News in 2009 that she has no power to help her constituents. She was quoted as saying, "As a parliamentary representative, I don't have any real power." Formally, there are four main functions and powers of the NPC: Constitutional supervision The NPC has the sole power to amend the Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution must be proposed by the NPC Standing Committee or one-fifth or more of the NPC deputies. In order for the Amendments to become effective, they must be passed by a two-thirds majority vote of all deputies. The NPC is also responsible for supervising the enforcement of the constitution. The CCP leadership plays a large role in the approval of constitutional amendments. In contrast to ordinary legislation, which the CCP leadership approves the legislation in principle, and in which the legislation is then introduced by government ministers or individual NPC delegates, constitutional amendments are drafted and debated within the party, approved by the CCP Central Committee and then presented by party deputies under the Standing Committee to the whole of the NPC during its yearly plenary session. If Congress is on recess and the Standing Committee is in session, the same process is repeated by either the party leader in the NPCSC or by one of the party deputies, but following the approval by the NPCSC, the amendments will be presented during the plenary session to all of the deputies for a final vote on the matter. If a fifth or more of the CCP party faction deputies will propose amendments either on their own or with the other parties in plenary session, the same process is applied. In contrast to ordinary legislation, in which the Legislation Law largely directs the process, the process for constitutional revision is largely described by CCP documents; the 2014 Decision Concerning Several Major Issues in Comprehensively Advancing Governance According to Law states that "The Party Central Committee submits proposals for amending the Constitution to the National People’s Congress". The NPC has created a set of institutions which monitor local administrative measures for constitutionality. The following positions are elected: • Deputies serving as part of the NPC Standing Committee, including its chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary-General, and regular members • President of China • Vice President of China • Chairperson of the Central Military Commission • Director of the National Supervisory Commission • President of the Supreme People's Court • Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate The following positions are appointed: To do this, the NPC acts in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the People's Republic in regards to its legislative activities. When the congress is in recess, its Standing Committee enacts all legislation presented to it by the CCP Central Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, other government organs or by the deputies themselves either of the standing committee or those of the committees within the NPC. The primary role of the CCP in the legislative process largely is exercised during the proposal and drafting of any legislation. Before the NPC considers legislation, there are working groups which study the proposed topic, and CCP leadership must first agree to any legislative changes before they are presented to either the full Congress or the NPCSC. The legislative process of the NPCSC works according to a five-year work plan drafted by the Legislative Affairs Commission. Within the work plan, a specific piece of legislative is drafted by a group of legislators or administrative agencies within the State Council, these proposals are collected into a yearly agenda which outlines the work of the NPC in a particular year. Moreover, in 2015, the NPC refused to pass a package of bills proposed by the State Council, insisting that each bill require a separate vote and revision process. The time for legislation can be as short as six months, or as long as 15 years for controversial legislation such as the Anti-Monopoly Law. Foreign outreach Like all official organs, the NPC is responsible for carrying out united front work. The NPC conducts outreach campaigns with foreign legislatures and parliamentarians for relationship-building and promotion of major CCP policy initiatives. == Membership ==

The Election Law restricts the NPC's maximum size to 3,000 deputy seats. Membership to the congress is part-time in nature and carries no pay, with deputies spending around 49 weeks per year at their home provinces. NPC members may be elected to represent a province that they do not live in. The CCP maintains control over the composition of deputies of people's congresses, especially in the National People's Congress. By law, all elections at all levels must adhere to the leadership of the CCP. Although CCP approval is, in effect, essential for membership in the NPC, approximately a third of the seats are by convention reserved for non-CCP members. This includes technical experts and deputies of the eight minor parties. While these members provide technical expertise and a somewhat greater diversity of views, they do not function as a political opposition. The Election Law requires the composition of NPC delegates to be "broadly representative". Since the beginning of the reform and opening up era in 1978, each NPC has released a "decision on the quotas and elections" for the following NPC, allocating a certain number of seats for demographic groups or setting guidelines on particular groups' representations. Since their transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong and Macau have been given 36 and 12 deputies elected to the NPC respectively. Delegations from Taiwan are chosen by "consultative election meetings" composed of 120 "compatriots of Taiwanese ancestry" hailing from various provinces in China, the central government and party agencies, and the military. Since the 6th NPC, Taiwan has been given 6 deputies at the NPC. Ethnic minorities and overseas Chinese representation A 150-seat quota for ethnic minorities was enacted in China's first election law in 1953. The 1982 constitution mandates that every ethnic minority should have "an appropriate number of delegates". The 5th NPC abandoned an explicit quota for ethnic minorities, substituting it with an allocation of "approximately 12%" of all seats for the next NPC, a practice followed by all subsequent NPC meetings. In 2018, the 153 delegates classed by the report as "super rich" (including China's wealthiest person, Pony Ma) had a combined wealth of $650 billion. The presence of the richest Chinese in the NPC dropped sharply from 2013 to 2023. == See also ==