(Source: Xinhua; last update: March 6, 2005)

    The people's congress system is the fundamental political system of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the organizational form of the state power of the people's democratic dictatorship in China, and the system of government of the country.

    The system most directly reflects the nature of the PRC, indicating the status of the Chinese people of various ethnicities as masters in the country's political life. The NPC is the highest institution through which the Chinese people exercise their state power.

    In 1953, China held people's congresses at different levels. In1954, the First National People's Congress (NPC) was convened, marking the establishment of the people's congress system. The NPC exercises legislative power, amends the Constitution and supervises its enforcement, formulates and amends basic statutes and other laws; elects and decides on leading personnel of state-level administrative, judicial, procuratorial and military bodies,and has the right to recall them; examines and decides on fundamental, long-term and key issues.

    All administrative, judicial, procuratorial and military organs and other state-level institutions are responsible to the NPC and supervised by it.

    The NPC Standing Committee, the permanent organ of the NPC, is elected by the NPC and exercises the legislative power of the state together with the NPC. Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Ye Jianying, Wan Li, Qiao Shi and Li Peng successively served as chairmen of past NPC Standing Committees. Wu Bangguo is chairman of the Tenth NPC Standing Committee.

    Among the nine terms of the NPC, eight have special committees except the Fourth NPC, which was in sessions during the period of the "Great Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976).

    The Tenth NPC has established nine special committees: the Financial and Economic Committee; Ethnic Affairs Committee; Law Committee; Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs; Education, Science Culture and Health Committee; Foreign Affairs Committee; Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee; Environment and Resources Protection Committee; and Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee.These committees are permanent bodies under the leadership and supervision of both the NPC and its Standing Committee.

    The NPC's delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is known as "the NPC Delegation." On Dec. 8, 1983, the Third Meeting of the Sixth NPC Standing Committee decided to join the IPU. In April 1984, the IPU Council's 134th meeting made an official announcement to accept the NPC Delegation as its member.

    The NPC Delegation is aimed to promote mutual understanding andfriendly exchanges with parliamentary members of different countries, develop friendship and cooperation with peoples of different countries, and safeguard world peace.

       Legislative powers of NPC, its Standing Committee

    The legislative powers of the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee are defined by the Constitution of China.

    According to the Constitution, the NPC exercises the following legislative powers:

    -- To amend the Constitution (In China, amendments to the Constitution are to be proposed by the Standing Committee of the NPC or by more than one-fifth of all deputies to the NPC and adopted by a majority affirmative vote of more than two-thirds of all the deputies);

    -- To enact and amend basic statutes concerning criminal offenses and civil affairs;

    -- To enact and amend statutes concerning State organs, which generally refer to various kinds of organic laws; and

    -- To enact and amend basic statutes concerning other matters, such as laws on election, ethnicity and marriage.

    The NPC Standing Committee exercises the following powers:

    -- To enact and amend statutes other than those that must be enacted by the NPC;

    -- To enact, when the NPC is not in session, partial supplements and amendments to statutes enacted by the NPC provided that they do not contravene the basic principles of these statutes;

    -- To interpret the Constitution and statutes;

    -- To annul administrative rules and regulations, decisions andorders of the State Council that contravene the Constitution or the statutes; and

    -- To annul local regulations or decisions of the organs of state power of provinces, autonomous regions and centrally-administered municipalities that contravene the Constitution and the statutes or the administrative rules and regulations. Enditem

    NPC's power of supervision

    The nature of the power of supervision of the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee is to impose restrictions on other national organs of state power and ensure that the government be run in accordance with the will of the people.

    The power of supervision of the NPC and its Standing Committee, as defined by the Constitution, includes supervising the enforcement of the Constitution and laws and supervising the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

    To be more specific, the NPC and its Standing Committee supervise the enforcement of the Constitution, while people's congresses and their standing committees at local levels ensure that the Constitution, laws, administrative regulations and decisions by people's congresses and their standing committees at higher levels be abided by and enforced in their respective regions.

    Another aspect of the supervisory function of the NPC and its Standing Committee is to see whether or not the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate accords with the Constitution and laws, whether or not they appropriately implement the principles and policies of the Communist Party of China and the State, whether or not their work accords with the fundamental interests of the people, and whether or not relevant officials do their jobs competently.

    The role of supervision also includes examining and approving the national or local economic and social development plan and its implementation at the national or local level; examining and approving the fiscal budget and its implementation at the national or local level; and electing, appointing and dismissing government officials. Enditem