China's Legislature to Amend Constitution ����On January 29, The National People's Congress Standing Committee, China's legislature, will consider a proposal by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee on amending the country's Constitution. ����A meeting of the chairman and vice-chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee made this decision last week. The meeting was presided over by Li Peng, the Standing Committee chairman. ����It was decided at this meeting that the legislature will open an extra two-day meeting this week to discuss the amendments. The legislature usually is in session every two months. ����Based on the discussion of the CPC Central Committee proposal on the first day, the legislature will formulate draft amendments to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China the same day, and will go on to discuss the new draft the second day. ����According to the Constitution, revisions must be proposed at the full session of the NPC by more than one-fifth of the deputies to the NPC or the NPC Standing Committee, and must be adopted by more than two-thirds of the NPC deputies. ����Since the founding of New China in 1949, the First, Fourth and Fifth NPC promulgated four constitutions in 1954, 1975, 1978 and 1982. ����The existing 1982 Constitution has been amended twice, in 1988 and 1993. ����According to the meeting of the chairman and vice-chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee, the two-day legislative meeting will also discuss a draft contract law, methods of selecting Macao deputies for the Ninth NPC, and hear reports by the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate on their restructuring. ����To prepare for the annual full session of the NPC, the legislative meeting will also discuss a draft decision on holding the Second Plenum of the Ninth NPC and a draft decision on the Hong Kong SAR deputy resigning the office of NPC deputy. HomeNews 1999-01-26 Page1 Full Story in Chinese