A draft amendment to China's Constitution that contains the
change of "state of siege" into "state of emergency" will lay a
constitutional foundation for the country's first Emergency Law,
which law experts say will mark a major progress in social
development after more than 20 years of market-oriented
reforms.
The second plenary session of the 10th National People's
Congress (NPC)
is expected to discuss and approve the draft amendment when it is
convened in March this year.
According to the draft, "state of siege" will be replaced by
"state of emergency." This change will enable the country's top
legislature to draft the Emergency Law, which has already been
listed as one of the 76 laws in the 10th NPC's five-year
legislation plan.
Prof. Li Shuguang, of the China University of Political Science
and Law, said that Martial Law is normally enforced in a situation
in which severe turbulence or turmoil threatens the country's
stability and unification, or the safety of life and property.
However, the enforcement domain of the Emergency Law is much wider,
as it not only includes social turbulence, but war, natural
disasters, public sanitation and economic crises.
Although China now has a Martial Law, National Defense Law and
Flood Control Law, as well as Earthquake Control and a Disaster
Relief Law, which lay out counter-measures for different emergency
situations, the country still lacks a comprehensive Emergency Law,
Li said.
Prof. Cai Dingjian, also of the China University of Political
Science and Law, said that when enforcing martial law, military
measures are usually implemented, while enforcing emergency law
normally only needs administrative measures.
Li said that he believed that the idea of changing "state of
siege" to "state of emergency" in the Constitutional amendment
sprang from the SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis, which occurred last
spring and spread alarm due to the lack of an emergency law.
An official with the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the
NPC Standing Committee revealed that when, as early as in 1990
legislators discussed the promulgation of Martial Law, someone
suggested changing the name martial law to emergency law. However,
because the then Constitution used the word "state of siege" but
not "state of emergency," the law's name was not changed.
The current Constitution, which contains 138 articles in four
chapters, was formulated in 1982. "At that time, China implemented
a planned economy, which allowed the government to allocate social
and natural resources at will, while today in the socialist market
economy, people's awareness of autonomy has been greatly enhanced.
In such a situation, the government has no right to allocate
resources as it pleases; it should obtain a legal basis to allocate
resources when an emergency situation occurs," said Li.
At the first plenary session of the 10th National People's
Congress, 34 deputies submitted proposals on the fight against
terrorism and on unexpected issues on the legislative agenda.
According to their proposals, the Emergency Law should be drafted
and promulgated as soon as possible, in an effort to improve the
ability of the government and people to deal with any
emergency.
(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2004)