Emergence of a dual constitution in transitional China - Núm. 15, Julio 2016 - Revista Jurídica Piélagus - Libros y Revistas - VLEX 682131949

Emergence of a dual constitution in transitional China

AutorShucheng Wang
CargoProfessor of law at City University of Hong Kong
Páginas155-177
Emergence of a dual constitution in transitional China*
Surgimiento de una constitución dual en una China
transicional
Shucheng Wang
Professor of law at City University of Hong Kong
shucwang@cityu.edu.hk
ABSTRACT
With China's miraculous economic development in recent decades, it is difficult for traditional theories, either
communist or liberal ones, to accurately reflect the reality of reform in China. Concepts such as “unwritten
constitution” or “living constitution” have been studied in the context of China. However, these western concepts
are unable to provide a holistic view of China's Constitution, especially after 1978. China's Constitution, centered
on the Communist Party and the State, has been largely transformed since then. This article goes beyond the
liberal approach and argues that a dual constitution has sprouted up in China, within which the Party's
Constitution attempts to keep pace with that of the State. Specifically, the Party has been endeavoring to
integrate itself into the State through political conventions and self-normalization. The dual constitution is unique
in the sense that it departs from the model of Mao Zedong; it deviates from that of the Soviet Union and it does not
follow the formalistic approach of Western countries in defining the nature of a constitution. This suggests that
the status quo of China's regime and the direction of its constitutional reform can only be clarified by
understanding the evolution of the dual constitution.
KEYWORDS
Chinese constitution; communist party; communist state; constitutional evolution; constitutional duality.
RESUMEN
Dado el asombroso desarrollo económico en las recientes décadas, es difícil para las teorías tradicionales,
tanto las comunistas como las liberales, reflejar la realidad exacta de reforma en China. Conceptos como
“Constitución no escrita” o “Constitución vigente” han sido estudiados en el contexto de China. No obstante,
estos conceptos occidentales no muestran una mirada holística de la Constitución de China, especialmente
después de 1978. La constitución de China, centrada en el Partido Comunista y en el Estado, ha sido
transformada en gran medida.
* The earlier version of this article was presented at the Inaugural Conference of International Society of Public Law on “Rethinking
the Boundaries of Public Law and Public Space” held at Florence on 27 June 2014, and was accepted by the World Congress of
Constitutional Law for workshop discussion on “The Constitution and Illiberal Democracy” at Oslo on June 18, 2014.
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Revista Jurídica , Vol. 15 pp. 155-177 /Piélagus ISSN 1657-6799 - Julio a Diciembre de 2016 / Neiva (Huila) Colombia
Recibido: 12/03/2016 Aprobado: 03/10/2016
Este artículo va más allá de los enfoques liberales y discute que una constitución dual ha brotado en China, con
la cual la Constitución de los partidos busca mantener el ritmo con el Estado. Específicamente, el partido ha
intentado integrarse al Estado a través de convenciones políticas y de una auto-normalización. La constitución
dual es única en el sentido de que parte del modelo de Mao Zedong, desviándose de la Unión Soviética y
dejando de seguir un enfoque formalista de los países occidentales para definir la naturaleza de una
constitución. Esto sugiere que el status quo del régimen de China y de la dirección de su propia reforma
constitucional puede ser aclarado entendiendo la evolución de la constitución dual.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Constitución de China; Partido comunista; Estado Comunista; Evolución de la constitución; dualidad de la
constitución.
INTRODUCTION
The National People's Congress of the People's
Republic of China is the highest organ of state power.
Its permanent body is the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress.
--Article 57 of the Constitution of the
People's Republic of China 1982
The Communist Party of China leads the people in
promoting socialist democracy … It upholds and
improves the system of people's congresses, the
system of multiparty cooperation and political
consultation under its leadership.
--Excerpted from the General Program, the
Constitution of the Communist Party of China
1
There is no doubt that China , as a developing
country, is still on a journey towards constitutio-
nalism. However, China's efforts should not be
underestimated. These can be seen, for example, in
the way that China became the world's second
2
largest economy in 2010 . This leads to the argument
that it is time for China to tell its own story: According
to Sizhuo (2010) “the Chinese have the ability to
create a great story. They are also definitely able to
learn how to tell their own story, allowing China's story
to spread to the world and emotionally move it”.
Regarding China's economic transition, Justin Yifu
Lin (cited in Callahan, W., 2013) visualizes that an
emerging “China model” of economic development
that combines authoritarian state governance and
free market capitalism is taking shape. The proposed
model could explain, to a certain extent, the rapid
economic development that has taken place in a
reformed China since 1978. However, it is highly
controversial whether “China's constitutionalism” is
also taking shape.
Recently, some Chinese left-wing thinkers, who
cel ebra te sta te pow ers, have arg ued th at
constitutionalism is an idea that only belongs to the
West and is inapplicable to China because its
intention is to subvert the leader ship of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) and socialist
sovereignty (Xiaoqing, Y., 2013, pp. 29-31). In
contrast, Chinese liberals hold that constitutionalism
is the common achievement of liberal civilization and
should be viewed as a goal that the CPC should
pursue in the future (Dayuan, H., 2012, pp. 40-43.). At
least such debate proves that the CPC, as the ruling
party, is not ruling the country on the basis of
constitutionalism either in the eyes of advocates or
opponents (Yongnian, Z., 2013). The most spirited
1- For the purpose of this article, China refers to the People's Republic of China (PRC), excluding the Hong Kong Special Administration
Region, Macau Special Administrative Region and the territory of Taiwan. Transitional China starts from 1978 when Deng Xiaoping
began to adopt the opening-up policy and implement all-round economic reform in China.
2 - China, as a transitional country, still faces many pressing problems to deal with, just like other transitional countries.
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Revista Jurídica , Vol. 15 Julio a Diciembre de 2016 / Piélagus Neiva (Huila) Colombia

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