• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 429 0

value. In the passage of most laws, the NPC has largely played a secondary role, endorsing the bills drafted by the executive branch. On a few rare occasions, the NPC Standing Committee showed its autonomy by rejecting the bills proposed by the government, such as the Law on Residents’ Committees in 1989 and the Highway Law in April 1999, which was later approved. In 1987, the Draft Law on the Bankruptcy of State-Owned Enterprises almost failed to pass due to strong opposition within the NPC. Like the NPC, LPCs rarely reject bills proposed by local governments. When they do, it becomes national news, as in the case of the People’s Congress of Shenzhen, which voted down, in 2004, a law on auditing and supervising the local government’s investment, an unprecedented act of political independence.44 Official figures also indicate that individual legislators play an insignificant role in lawmaking. Not a single bill proposed by NPC delegates has been enacted into law. For example, from 1983 to 1995, more than 5,000 bills were proposed by delegates, but only 933 (18 percent) of them were referred to committees. There is no record that any of the proposed bills ever became law.45

Constitutional Oversight Power

On paper, the constitutional oversight power of the NPC has expanded significantly. The NPC supervises the courts and appoints and removes officials. It also investigates and oversees the work of the executive branch; approves the work reports of the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate; reviews and approves budgets; and provides legislative interpretations. The NPC can review the constitutionality of laws; inspect the implementation of specific laws by supervising individual court cases; hold hearings; conduct special investigations; and impeach and dismiss government officials. 46 But in reality, the NPC has seldom asserted its formal oversight power. For example, the NPC has never declared a law unconstitutional or rejected a work report by the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court, or the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. It has never refused to approve a budget, and has never launched its own special investigations or initiated proceedings of dismissal against a single government official. The NPC’s inspection tours or hearings do not appear to have had any impact on policy, either. The most visible expression of the NPC’s oversight power is rather symbolic: each year, about 20 percent of the NPC delegates vote against the work reports of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.47

Table 2.1. Legislative Output of the NPC, 1978-2003

Sources: Zhongguofalünianjian(Law Yearbook ofChina),various years; www.chinanews.com.cn, February 20, 2003.

By comparison, in some provinces, cities, and counties, the LPCs occasionally have tried to be more assertive.48 Playing what O’Brien called the role of remonstrators, LPC members sometimes take local bureaucracies to task for poor performance and corruption.49 In 2000, in a well-publicized case, the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress held a hearing on the work of the provincial environmental protection agency. Unhappy with the agency’s work, the deputies voted, 23 to 5, on a resolution to express dissatisfaction with the agency’s response given at the hearing and demanded a second hearing. Even after agency officials gave an improved performance at the second hearing, the deputies remained unsatisfied, although such expressions of dissatisfaction did not appear to have any substantive political effects.50

LPC deputies have demanded audits of the expenditures of local governments and criticized local governments’ commercial deals and corrupt activities.51 In 2002, members of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress aggressively questioned the provincial government about its 22 billion yuan budget and demanded explanations for many line-item expenditures. Afterward, the Guangdong provincial government became more forthcoming in providing more detailed budgetary information to the congress.52