Chapter One General Principles
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(1) The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the
people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and
based on the alliance of workers and peasants.
(2) The socialist system is the basic system of the People's
Republic of China. Sabotage of the socialist system by any
organization or individual is prohibited.
(1) All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the
people.
(2) The organs through which the people exercise state power are
the National People's Congress and the local people's congresses
at different levels.
(3) The people administer state affairs and manage economic,
cultural and social affairs through various channels and in
various ways in accordance with the law.
(1) The state organs of the People's Republic of China apply the
principle of democratic centralism.
(2) The National People's Congress and the local people's
congresses at different levels are instituted through democratic
election. They are responsible to the people and subject to their
supervision.
(3) All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the
state are created by the people's congresses to which they are
responsible and under whose supervision they operate.
(4) The division of functions and powers between the central and
local state organs is guided by the principle of giving full play
to the initiative and enthusiasm of the local authorities under
the unified leadership of the central authorities.
(1) All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal.
The state protects the lawful rights and interests of the minority
nationalities and upholds and develops the relationship of
equality, unity, and mutual assistance among all of China's
nationalities. Discrimination against and oppression of any
nationality are prohibited; any acts that undermine the unity of
the nationalities or instigate their secession are prohibited.
The state helps the areas inhabited by minority nationalities
speed up their economic and cultural development in accordance
with the peculiarities and needs of the different minority
nationalities.
(2) Regional autonomy is practiced in areas where people of
minority nationalities live in compact communities; in these areas
organs of self-government are established for the exercise of the
right of autonomy. All the national autonomous areas are
inalienable parts of the People's Republic of China.
(3) The people of all nationalities have the freedom to use and
develop their own spoken and written languages, and to preserve or
reform their own ways and customs.
(1) The state upholds the uniformity and dignity of the socialist
legal system.
(2) No law or administrative or local rules and regulations shall
contravene the Constitution.
(3) All state organs, the armed forces, all political parties and
public organizations, and all enterprises and undertakings must
abide by the Constitution and the law. All acts in violation of
the Constitution and the law must be looked into.
(4) No organization or individual may enjoy the privilege of being
above the Constitution and the law.
(1) The basis of the socialist economic system of the People's
Republic of China is socialist public ownership of the means of
production, namely, ownership by the whole people and collective
ownership by the working people.
(2) The system of socialist public ownership supersedes the system
of exploitation of man by man; it applies the principle of "from
each according to his ability, to each according to his work."
The state economy is the sector of socialist economy under
ownership by the whole people; it is the leading force in the
national economy. The state ensures the consolidation and growth
of the state economy.
(1) Rural people's communes, agricultural producers co-operatives,
and other forms of co-operative economy such as producers', supply
and marketing, credit, and consumers' co-operatives, belong to the
sector of socialist economy under collective ownership by the
working people. Working people who are members of rural economic
collectives have the right, within the limits prescribed by law,
to farm plots of cropland and hilly land allotted for private use,
engage in household sideline production and raise privately owned
livestock.
(2) The various forms of co-operative economy in the cities and
towns, such as those in the handicraft, industrial, building,
transport, commercial, and service trades, all belong to the
sector of socialist economy under collective ownership by the
working people.
(3) The state protects the lawful rights and interests of the
urban and rural economic collectives and encourages, guides, and
helps the growth of the collective economy.
(1) Mineral resources, waters, forests, mountains, grassland,
unreclaimed land, beaches, and other natural resources are owned
by the state, that is, by the whole people, with the exception of
the forests, mountains, grassland, unreclaimed land, and beaches
that are owned by collectives in accordance with the law.
(2) The state ensures the rational use of natural resources and
protects rare animals and plants. The appropriation or damage of
natural resources by any organization or individual by whatever
means is prohibited.
(1) Land in the cities is owned by the state.
(2) Land in the rural and suburban areas is owned by collectives
except for those portions which belong to the state in accordance
with the law; house sites and privately farmed plots of cropland
and hilly land are also owned by collectives.
(3) The state may in the public interest take over land for its
use in accordance with the law.
(4) no organization or individual may appropriate, buy, sell or
otherwise engage in the transfer of land by unlawful means. The
right to the use of land may be transferred according to law.
(5) All organizations and individuals who use land must make
rational use of the land.
(1) The individual economy of urban and rural working people,
operated within the limits prescribed by law, is a complement to
the socialist public economy. The state protects the lawful
rights and interests of the individual economy.
(2) The state guides, helps, and supervises the individual economy
by exercising administrative control.
(3) The State permits the private sector of the economy to exist
and develop within the limits prescribed by law. The private
sector of the economy is a complement to the socialist public
economy. The State protects the lawful rights and interests of
the private sector of the economy, and exercises guidance,
supervision and control over the private sector of the economy.
(1) Socialist public property is sacred and inviolable.
(2) The state protects socialist public property. Appropriation
or damage of state or collective property by any organization or
individual by whatever means is prohibited.
(1) The state protects the right of citizens to own lawfully
earned income, savings, houses, and other lawful property.
(2) The state protects by law the right of citizens to inherit
private property.
(1) The state continuously raises labor productivity, improves
economic results and develops the productive forces by enhancing
the enthusiasm of the working people, raising the level of their
technical skill, disseminating advanced science and technology,
improving the systems of economic administration and enterprise,
operation and management, instituting the socialist system of
responsibility in various forms, and improving organization of
work.
(2) The state practices strict economy and combats waste.
(3) The state properly apportions accumulation and consumption,
pays attention to the interests of the collective and the
individual as well as of the state and, on the basis of expanded
production, gradually improves the material and cultural life of
the people.
(1) The state practices economic planning on the basis of
socialist public ownership. It ensures the proportionate and
co-ordinated growth of the national economy through overall
balancing by economic planning and the supplementary role of
regulation by the market.
(2) Disturbance of the orderly functioning of the social economy
or disruption of the state economic plan by any organization or
individual is prohibited.
(1) State enterprises have decision making power in operation and
management within the limits prescribed by law, on condition that
they submit to unified leadership by the state, and fulfill all
their obligations under the state plan.
(2) State enterprises practice democratic management through
congresses of workers and staff and in other ways in accordance
with the law.
(1) Collective economic organizations have decisionmaking power in
conducting independent economic activities, on condition that they
accept the guidance of the state plan and abide by the relevant
laws.
(2) Collective economic organizations practice democratic
management in accordance with the law, with the entire body of
their workers electing or removing their managerial personnel and
deciding on major issues concerning operation and management.
(1) The People's Republic of China permits foreign enterprises,
other foreign economic organizations, and individual foreigners to
invest in China and to enter into various forms of economic
co-operation with Chinese enterprises and other economic
organizations in accordance with the law of the People's Republic
of China.
(2) All foreign enterprises and other foreign economic
organizations in China, as well as joint ventures with Chinese and
foreign investment located in China, shall abide by the law of the
People's Republic of China. Their lawful rights and interests are
protected by the law of the People's Republic of China.
(1) The state develops socialist educational undertakings and
works to raise the scientific and cultural level of the whole
nation.
(2) The state runs schools of various types, makes primary
education compulsory and universal, develops secondary, vocational
and higher education, and promotes pre-school education.
(3) The state develops educational facilities of various types in
order to wipe out illiteracy and provide political, cultural,
scientific, technical, and professional education for workers,
peasants, state functionaries and other working people. It
encourages people to become educated through independent study.
(4) The slate encourages the collective economic organizations,
state enterprises and undertakings, and other social forces to set
up educational institutions of various types in accordance with
the law.
(5) The state promotes the nationwide use of Putonghua.
The state promotes the development of the natural and social
sciences, disseminates scientific and technical knowledge, and
commends and rewards achievements in scientific research as well
as technological discoveries and inventions.
(1) The state develops medical and health services, promotes
modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, encourages and
supports the setting up of various medical and health facilities
by the rural economic collectives, state enterprises and
undertakings and neighborhood organizations, and promotes public
health activities of a mass character, all to protect the people's
health.
(2) The state develops physical culture and promotes mass sports
activities to build up the people's physique.
(1) The state promotes the development of literature and art, the
press, broadcasting, and television undertakings, publishing and
distribution services, libraries, museums, cultural centers and
other cultural undertakings, that serve the people and socialism,
and sponsors mass cultural activities.
(2) The state protects places of scenic and historical interest,
valuable cultural monuments, and treasures and other important
items of China's historical and cultural heritage.
The state trains specialized personnel in all fields who serve
socialism, increases the number of intellectuals, and creates
conditions to give full scope to their role in collective
modernization.
(1) The state strengthens the building of socialist spiritual
civilization through spreading education in high ideals and
morality, general education, and education in discipline and the
legal system, and through promoting the formulation and observance
of rules of conduct and common pledges by different sections of
the people in urban and rural areas.
(2) The state advocates the civic virtues of love of the
motherland, of the people, of labor, of science, and of socialism;
it educates the people in patriotism, collectivism,
internationalism, and communism and in dialectical and historical
materialism; it combats capitalist, feudal, and other decadent
ideas.
The state promotes family planning so that population growth may
fit the plan for economic and social development.
(1) The state protects and improves the living environment and the
ecological environment, and prevents and remedies pollution and
other public hazards.
(2) The state organizes and encourages afforestation and the
protection of forests.
(1) All state organs carry out the principle of simple and
efficient administration, the system of responsibility for work,
and the system of training functionaries and appraising their work
in order constantly to improve quality of work and efficiency and
combat bureaucratism.
(2) All state organs and functionaries must rely on the support of
the people, keep in close touch with them, heed their opinions and
suggestions, accept their supervision and work hard to serve them.
The state maintains public order and suppresses treasonable and
other counter-revolutionary activities; it penalizes actions that
endanger public security and disrupt the socialist economy and
other criminal activities, and punishes and reforms criminals.
(1) The armed forces of the People's Republic of China belong to
the people. Their tasks are to strengthen national defence,
resist aggression, defend the motherland, safeguard the people's
peaceful labor, participate in national reconstruction, and work
hard to serve the people.
(2) The state strengthens the revolutionization, modernization and
regularization of the armed forces in order to increase the
national defence capability.
(1) The administrative division of the People's Republic of China
is as follows:
1. The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions, and
municipalities directly under the Central Government;
2. Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into autonomous
prefectures, counties, autonomous counties, and cities;
3. Counties and autonomous counties are divided into townships,
nationality townships, and towns.
(2) Municipalities directly under the Central Government and other
large cities are divided into districts and counties. Autonomous
prefectures are divided into counties, autonomous counties, and
cities.
(3) All autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures, and autonomous
counties are national autonomous areas.
The state may establish special administrative regions when
necessary. The systems to be instituted in special administrative
regions shall be prescribed by law enacted by the National
People's Congress in the light of the specific conditions.
(1) The People's Republic of China protects the lawful rights and
interests of foreigners within Chinese territory, and while on
Chinese territory foreigners must abide by the law of the People's
Republic of China.
(2) The People's Republic of China may grant asylum to foreigners
who request it for political reasons.
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