BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Constitutional revisions are meant to regularize the valuable experience of China's reform and opening-up, and to bring it in line with the common ideology of the nation, said Pang Xianzhi, a constitutional expert of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

    "A constitution is not about foretelling the future," the ideological guru said about the third round of amendments to China's Constitution five years ago.

    The past five years witnessed rapid socio-economic progress and helped mull over the fourth round of constitutional amendments which topped the agenda of Chinese lawmakers. They had gathered in the past week at the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee to discuss the revisions proposed by the CPC Central Committee.

    Though claiming to stick to the principle of "maintaining the stability of the Constitution and limiting the amendments to the most essential ones," the CPC Central Committee still proposed 14 major revisions to the Constitution, many more than in previous years.

    The current Constitution, which contains 138 articles in four chapters, was formulated in 1982, and was later amended three times, with two revisions in 1998, nine in 1993, and six in 1999.

    "The CPC central committee's proposal is a comprehensive one," said a top legislator. It covers a wide range of issues of public concern that were not tackled before, and the large scale of the revisions is also related to the "democratic manner" in which the proposals were formulated. "It reflects the work style of China's new generation of leaders," he said.

    When the CPC Central Committee said it wanted to revise the Constitution this time, it just put forward some basic principles without a detailed draft, and solicited suggestions from local Party committees and people from all walks of life. After a draft had been made, it was again passed to localities and people of various sectors again, for their opinions.

    "The proposal to the top legislature is the brainchild of the whole Party and the whole Chinese people," a senior lawmaker said, noting that "the way to form the proposals was a concrete example of showing the practice of democracy and reflecting the strong leadership of the Party."