Constitutional Amendment Paves Way for Governance Order in the New Era

The 2018 amendment to China’s Constitution provides a solid and robust foundation for reform of governance order in the new era—from the perspectives of both guiding principles and specific stipulations.

China’s 2018 constitutional amendment has sparked worldwide attention. It provides constitutional support for governance order in the “new era,” as mentioned in the report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). To completely understand the necessity and institutional significance of this amendment, one needs accurate understanding of the role of the leadership of the CPC in the country’s fundamental law as well as the Party’s dual missions: realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

One of the key changes brought by the amendment is that the outline of CPC leadership is moved from the Preamble to the “General Principles” chapter. To understand the constitutional status of Party leadership, one must first understand the socialist characteristics of China’s Constitution. The amended Constitution is socialist and comprises a set of general principles for governance. One would encounter system incompatibility and a values conflict for judging the nature and importance of China’s Constitution from the perspective of contemporary comparative constitutional studies or Western constitutional theory.  

Understanding China’s constitutional revision also requires a correct understanding of China’s realities and what kind of law the country needs. A country’s constitution represents a set of relatively stable normative orders, but such orders are not necessarily set in stone. Internal dynamics must evolve and develop, and changes of the times demand adjustments accordingly. All countries adopt similar mechanisms—a combination of a regular constitutional interpretation system and occasional constitutional revisions at crucial moments—to ensure their constitutions align with the development of the times.

As People’s Daily commented, the move incorporates significant theories and policies produced by the 19th CPC National Congress into the Constitution through an amendment, upgrading the major theoretical, practical and institutional innovations made by the CPC and the people into constitutional outlines to reflect the new achievements, new experiences and new requirements of the Party and the nation—based on a new situation and new methods to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. This move will definitely allow the Constitution to play a greater role in regulating, guiding, promoting and guaranteeing good governance and enable the country to better uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics under the rule of law.

This constitutional revision is primarily based on the new historical juncture and two top-level structural requirements for China in the new era:

One is the national goal of “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which aligns with China’s “two centenary goals” and the goal to build a great modern socialist country. This requires the country’s governance system and Constitution to adapt to decisive goals concerning China’s development and national rejuvenation.

The other is the goal of global governance, namely, building a community of shared future for mankind. This goal conforms to the traditional Chinese philosophy of pursuing the “common good of the world,” the internationalism advocated by the CPC, and the norms and values of China’s reform and opening up and globalization. It is a general expression of China’s values and ideas for rule of law. China’s Constitution needs to adapt to maintaining the continuity of the relationship between China and the world.

To meet the structural demands for governance order in the new era, this year’s constitutional revision provides proper institutional backing:

First, it incorporates the CPC’s new guiding thoughts into the Constitution, guaranteeing the continuity and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in terms of constitutional guiding principles and keeping the development of China’s socialist system on a right, stable and healthy track.

Second, writing the CPC leadership into the “General Principles” chapter of the Constitution provides a clearer and more authoritative constitutional basis for the connection between the practice of law-based governance and further reform of Party and state organs and systems.  

Third, the amended Constitution removes the clause limiting China’s president to two consecutive terms, which coordinates and unites the stipulations on the terms of office of the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, president of China, and president of the Central Military Commission.

Fourth, the amendment defines supervisory commissions as a new type of state organs in the Constitution, integrating the formerly decentralized anti-corruption and administrative supervision functions into a united state supervisory authority and establishing a full and round-the-clock anti-graft supervisory system that ensures public power is exercised under the rule of law.

Fifth, the amended Constitution acknowledges and guarantees the expansion of legislative power of local governments, to explore a more autonomous and flexible local governance system and promote the modernization of state governance through delegating powers and promoting regional innovation.

Sixth, building “a community with a shared future for humanity” was written into the Constitution as a constitutional concept and principle for China to participate in global governance. This move aims at conceptual upgrading and order restructuring through systematic, cooperative global governance efforts such as the Belt and Road Initiative in terms of capital, culture, society, security and institutions, with an intention of exploring the Chinese model and roadmap for lasting peace and prosperity of mankind.

In summation, based the overall situations of China’s development and the latest changes in the world, the 2018 amendment to the Constitution upgraded the great achievements and rich experiences of the CPC and the people into constitutional stipulations in a timely manner. This is an important measure to comprehensively advance law-based governance and accelerate the modernization of the country’s governance system and governance capacity. Understanding and implementing the amended Constitution is vital to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the overall peace and development of the world. In a time when the world order is undergoing profound changes, China has been deeply involved in a new round of globalization and power reconstruction and gradually grown into a responsible major country with enormous attraction and strong system-reshaping capacity. The amendment provides a solid and robust foundation for reform of governance order in the new era—from the perspective of both guiding principles and specific stipulations.

The author is an associate professor and Ph.D. in law at the Law School of Beihang University and a council member of Beijing Intra-Party Regulations Research Society.