In September 1954 the first constitution of the PRC was passed in which it annuls the principled provisions on the division of powers between central and local authorities provided by the “General Program” and provides that the National People’s Congress (NPC) is the sole legislature of the country. There are no provisions with respect to local legislation except providing that the organs of self-government of autonomous region, autonomous prefecture and autonomous county have the power to enact autonomy regulations and specific regulations in the light of the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the nationality or nationalities in the areas concerned. Meanwhile, in the “Organic Law of the Local People’s Congresses and Local People’s Councils of the People’s Republic of China” adapted at the first session of the First NPC on September 21, 1954 it did not touch upon the matters involving the law-making power of local authorities. This means that the local legislative power was finally rejected by the constitution and constitutional document.
In order to meet the needs of opening the door to the outside world and correct the defects of over-centralized power system the Fifth NPC passed, on July 1, 1979, the “Organic Law of the Local People’s Congresses and Local People’s Governments of the People’s Republic of China” at its second session which confers the power of making local statute upon the people’s congresses and their standing committees of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government. On December 4, 1982, the Fifth NPC adopted, at its Fifth session, the living constitution which confirms the law-making power of state power organ at province level. This is the first time that the local legislative power was conferred by the basic law in China. Since then a local legislative system with China’s characteristics was set up initially in China. From 1979 to the present, there have been about 8,700 local statutes and regulations were enacted.
China’s administrative divisions
According to the provisions of constitution, the administrative divisions of China are basically a three-level system of provinces, counties (cities) and townships (towns). The whole country is divided into twenty-three provinces, five autonomous regions, and four centrally administered municipalities and two special administrative regions. Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties, and cities. Counties and autonomous counties are divided into townships, nationality townships, and towns. The municipalities, cities where the provincial or autonomous regional government is located and relatively large cities approved by the State Council are divided into districts and counties. Two tables concerning the administrative division of China are displayed below:
Table 1 A Chart of China’s Administrative Division
A Chart of China’s Administrative Division
Table 2. A Statistical Table of China’s Administrative Division
By the end of 2000
A Statistical Table of China’s Administrative Division By the end of 2000
source: Network of China’s Administrative Division
Types of local legislation
In China, many legal scholars in their academic works often divided the local legislation into four categories: the legislation of general administrative area, of national autonomous region, of special economic zone and of special administrative region. Though this division is in academic nature, it is helpful to readers in their understanding the system of local legislation.
Legislation of general administrative area
The general administrative area is neither a concept of administrative division nor a legal term, in the strict sense. It is only an academic concept relative to national autonomous region, special economic zone and special administrative region. According to the constitution and local organic law, the legislative bodies in the general administrative area that have authority to create local statute includes:
a. the people’s congresses of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government and their standing committees.
b. the people’s congresses of cities where the provincial and autonomous regional governments are located and their standing committees.
c. the people’s congress of relatively large cities and its standing committee.
“relatively large cities” are those cities approved by the State Council in accordance with the local organic law whose congress have the right to enact local statutes. From 1982 to date the State Council has approved in five batch 20 such cities early and late.
Table 3. A List of Relatively Large Cities
A List of Relatively Large Cities
* Chongqing is now a Centrally Administered Municipality since1997.
According to the Legislation Law passed in 2000 the relatively large city also includes the city where the people’s government of the province or autonomous region is seated and the city where a special economic zone is located except those cities approved by the State Council.
