China's legislators heard the explanations of the draft amendment to the Constitution at a parliamentary session Monday. This is the fourth amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1982. The previous three amendments were made in 1988, 1993 and 1999, respectively.

China's Constitution provides that amendments to the Constitution "must be proposed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress or by more than one-fifth of the deputies to the National People's Congress and adopted by a vote of more than two-thirds of all the deputies to the Congress."

The following is a chronology of the current draft amendment, as explained by Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

l         March 27, 2003 - General principles on constitutional amendments were set at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, was appointed head of the Central Constitutional Amendments Group (CCAG).

l         April 2003 - All provincial level governments were required to offer their recommendations.

l         May-June 2003 - First version of amendments was completed after hearing the voices of officials from local governments, ministries, major business executives and experts on six occasions.

l         Aug. 28, 2003 - Senior leaders of the central committees of non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and people without party affiliations voiced their opinions at a meeting called by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

l         Sept. 12, 2003 - Theorists, legal experts, and economists voiced their opinions at a meeting called by Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee and head of the CCAG.

l         Before Oct. 11, 2003 - Revisions were made on first version of the proposal for amendments, making it ready for discussion at a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee.

l         Oct. 11-14, 2003 - The draft proposal was adopted at the third plenary session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in Beijing.

l         Dec. 22, 2003 - The draft proposal was made public.

l         Dec. 22-27, 2003 - The draft amendment to the Constitution was adopted by the sixth plenary session of the NPC Standing Committee upon the proposals by the CPC Central Committee.

l         March 8, 2004 - The draft amendments were explained at the annual session of NPC.

l         March 14, 2004 - The draft amendment is to put to voting at the NPC session.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2004)