The annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC),
China's top legislature, came to a close in Beijing Sunday
afternoon after adopting the?amendments to the Constitution
and resolutions on a series of relevant documents.
The Second Session of the 10th NPC, which opened last Friday,
received a total of 1,374 motions from NPC delegations and
deputies, a record high since the introduction of a motion delivery
system at the First Session of the Sixth NPC in 1983.
Most of the motions are about how to cope with protruding
contradictions emerged from the endeavor for the economic and
social development and protect the personal interests of the
ordinary people, and approximately 60 percent of the motions are
concentrated on the revision of laws and regulations or the
improvement of the relevant legal system.
The Second Session of the 10th National People's Congress
adopted resolutions concerning the Report on the Work of the
Government delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao, as well as the reports
on the Implementation of the 2003 Plan for National Economic and
Social Development and on the Draft 2004 Plan for National Economic
and Social Development, the reports on the Implementation of the
Central and Local Budgets for 2003 and on the Draft Central and
Local Budgets for 2004.
The session also adopted by ballot the resolutions concerning
the Work Report of the NPC Standing Committee, as well as the work
reports of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's
Procuratorate at the closing meeting.
Moreover, the decision of the NPC Standing Committee on
accepting the requests of Hua Fuzhou and Zhang Geng to resign as
NPC Standing Committee members was confirmed.
A total of 2,903 deputies attended the closing meeting. The
amendments to Constitution were adopted with an overwhelming
majority of 2,863 votes in favor, 10 against and 17 abstentions.
Out of the 2,903 ballots issued, 2,891 were recovered, including an
invalid one.
The clause on private property protection, proposed by the
leading Communist Party of China, places private assets of Chinese
citizens on an equal footing with public-sector property, and are
"not to be encroached upon."
Other major points of the amendment to the Constitution include,
among others, expression of "respecting for and protecting human
rights, institution of the guiding role of the "Three Represents"
important thought in national political and social life,
expressions of coordinated development of material civilization and
political and cultural progress, incorporation of the term
"builders of socialism," and improvement of the land expropriation
system.
Also included are expressions on the further clarification of
the state policy toward non-public economic sectors, improvement of
the social security system and the NPC's composition, stipulations
on the state of emergency, on the functions of the presidency and
on revision of the terms of government at township level, and
stipulation on the national anthem.
Wu Bangguo said at the closing meeting that the Constitution
constituted the core of China's legal system with Chinese
characteristics, adding that "we should call on leading officials
and state functionaries to study the Constitution meticulously,
further increase their awareness of the constitution and strive to
maintain its authority effectively and guarantee that the
Constitution is implemented validly.
The closing meeting, held in the Great Hall of the People in
downtown Beijing, was presided over by Wu Bangguo, chairman of the
NPC Standing Committee and also an executive chairman of the
session.
Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong,
Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan, among others,
cast ballots at the closing meeting.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2004)
