Functions and Authority of China’s National People’s Congress

When people think of legislatures, images of parliamentary debates, opposition benches, and fiery floor speeches often come to mind. China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), however, is a creature of a very different political system. It is massive, unicameral, meets only briefly each year, and operates under the undisputed leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Yet on paper, it is the most powerful state organ in the country, with the authority to rewrite the Constitution, appoint the president, and approve trillion-yuan development plans. Understanding how this body works is essential for anyone studying comparative politics, BRICS governance, or the machinery behind modern China.

What is the National People’s Congress? 🔗

The National People’s Congress is the unicameral national legislature of the People’s Republic of China, established in 1954 under the country’s first constitution. It is defined as the “highest organ of state power”, a status that places every other major central body – the presidency, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the National Supervisory Commission – formally under its authority.

Scale is one of the NPC’s defining features. With close to 2,977 deputies elected to the 14th NPC before its first session began in Beijing on March 5, 2023, it is widely regarded as the largest legislative body in the world. The deputy count is capped at 3,000 under Chinese law, and membership is part-time and unpaid for the vast majority of deputies, who continue their regular jobs as factory workers, farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, or officials while serving.

Composition and representation 🔗

Deputies to the NPC are not chosen through direct national elections. Instead, they are elected indirectly by 35 electoral units that include the people’s congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, the servicemen congress of the People’s Liberation Army, and election councils for the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions as well as Taiwan compatriots. Deputies to county- and township-level people’s congresses are directly elected by voters, but at every level above that, selection is indirect – and the Party controls nomination and election processes throughout the system.

The composition is deliberately broad. Female deputies make up more than a quarter of the total, and all of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups are represented, along with deputies from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan Province, and returned overseas Chinese. This diversity is important to the Party’s narrative of representative governance, although the overwhelming majority of deputies are CCP members or belong to affiliated “democratic parties” that accept CCP leadership.

Tenure, sessions, and the annual rhythm 🔗

Each NPC is elected for a five-year term. The full body meets only once a year, usually for about two weeks in March, during what the Chinese media calls the “Two Sessions” – the NPC convenes simultaneously with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body.

During these brief annual gatherings, deputies review the work report of the government, examine the state budget, assess the plan for national economic and social development, and consider major legislation. The annual session also serves as a platform for other state institutions to publicly report on their previous year’s work and announce their goals and priorities for the coming year. A session requires at least two-thirds of all deputies to be present to be considered valid.

The Standing Committee: the engine room 🔗

Since the NPC meets for only a couple of weeks each year, the bulk of the legislative workload falls on its Standing Committee (NPCSC). Elected by the NPC from among its own deputies, the Standing Committee has roughly 170 members, meets approximately every two months, and functions as the de facto national legislature for the 350-odd days when the full Congress is not in session.

The Standing Committee’s powers expanded significantly after the 1982 Constitution and subsequent reforms. It now shares legislative authority with the NPC and handles the vast majority of everyday lawmaking, including drafting and revising laws, interpreting the Constitution and statutes, and supervising the enforcement of the Constitution. Members of the Standing Committee are generally full-time, receive a salary, and are barred from holding simultaneous positions in administrative, supervisory, judicial, or procuratorial organs – a rule designed to preserve some separation between the legislature and the institutions it oversees.

Functions and powers of the NPC 🔗

The constitutional functions of the National People’s Congress cluster around four broad areas: constitutional amendment, legislation, personnel decisions, and oversight of major national plans.

Amending the Constitution 🔗

The NPC has the sole power to amend China’s Constitution. Amendments must be proposed either by the Standing Committee or by at least one-fifth of all NPC deputies, and they require a two-thirds majority of all deputies to pass. The current Constitution was adopted at the First Session of the First NPC in 1954 and comprehensively revised in 1982, with partial amendments in 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004, and most recently in 2018, when presidential term limits were removed. In practice, constitutional amendments are drafted and debated within the CCP before being presented to the NPC for formal adoption.

Enacting laws 🔗

The NPC and its Standing Committee jointly exercise the legislative power of the state. The NPC itself enacts and amends “basic laws” – the foundational statutes covering criminal offences, civil affairs, and state organs – while the Standing Committee handles most other legislation as well as partial amendments to basic laws when the full Congress is not sitting.

The body of law produced over the decades is substantial. Major statutes enacted by the NPC include the Criminal Law, the Criminal Procedure Law, the Civil Law, the Civil Procedure Law, the Electoral Law, the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy, the Supervision Law, and the Basic Laws of the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions. For a sense of how much work the Standing Committee actually carries, researchers have long noted that many of China’s most significant statutes – including counter-terrorism and national security laws – were adopted by the Standing Committee rather than by the full Congress.

Electing and removing top state officials 🔗

The NPC’s personnel powers shape the leadership of the entire Chinese state. It elects the president and vice president of the People’s Republic of China, decides on the premier of the State Council based on the president’s nomination, and decides on vice premiers, state councilors, ministers, the auditor general, and the secretary general of the State Council based on the premier’s nominations. It also elects the chairperson of the Central Military Commission, the chairperson of the National Commission of Supervision, the president of the Supreme People’s Court, and the procurator general of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. The NPC has the corresponding power to remove any of these officials.

Approving national plans and the budget 🔗

Every spring, the Congress reviews and approves the plan for national economic and social development and the central government’s budget, along with the reports on their implementation. This is how the famous Five-Year Plans receive their formal legal blessing, and it gives the NPC a direct role in shaping macroeconomic policy, infrastructure spending, and social welfare priorities.

Supervision and oversight 🔗

Beyond lawmaking and personnel, the NPC and its Standing Committee are tasked with supervising the implementation of the Constitution and laws. Oversight tools include examining the work reports of the State Council, the National Supervisory Commission, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate; inspecting law enforcement; reviewing administrative regulations and local statutes; and raising questions or launching special investigations. During an annual session, a delegation or 30 or more deputies acting together may submit written inquiries to ministries, courts, or the procuratorate, which are then obliged to respond.

Relationship with the Communist Party 🔗

No serious discussion of the NPC can ignore its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Constitution enshrines the Party’s “leading role,” and in principle, the NPC is the supreme source of law in China, with the basic laws and other laws adopted by the full NPC or its Standing Committee ranking as the highest form of law after the Constitution. In practice, however, the CCP sets the overall direction for legislation, constitutional amendments, and senior appointments, and the NPC gives these decisions legal form.

This is why the NPC is often described in Western analysis as a “rubber stamp” legislature. The label captures something real about how final decisions are made, but it also undersells the body’s institutional development over the past four decades. The NPC today produces detailed statutes, conducts public consultations, and has become more assertive in areas like environmental protection, consumer rights, and budget transparency – even if the ultimate political direction remains firmly with the Party leadership.

Special committees and working bodies 🔗

To handle technical legislative work between sessions, the NPC has established 10 special committees covering areas such as ethnic affairs, the Constitution and law, supervisory and judicial affairs, financial and economic affairs, education, science, culture and public health, foreign affairs, overseas Chinese affairs, environmental protection, agriculture, and social development. These committees research issues, draft bills, and support legislative and oversight work under the direction of the NPC and, when it is not in session, its Standing Committee. Additional working bodies such as the Legislative Affairs Commission provide the professional staff capacity that makes detailed lawmaking possible.

Why the NPC matters for BRICS-era governance 🔗

For students of comparative public administration, the NPC offers a case study in how a very large legislature can be designed to prioritize unity, scale, and policy direction over adversarial debate. It sits at the heart of what the Chinese government calls “whole-process people’s democracy,” a model that contrasts sharply with the pluralistic parliamentary democracies of Brazil, India, and South Africa within the BRICS grouping. Studying the NPC’s design – the tiered indirect elections, the dominant Standing Committee, the annual “Two Sessions” rhythm, and the Party’s steering role – helps clarify how institutions can look similar on paper across countries while functioning very differently in practice.

What do you think? Does the NPC’s model of a large, part-time legislature with a powerful permanent Standing Committee offer any lessons – positive or cautionary – for how legislatures in other BRICS countries balance scale, expertise, and democratic representation? And how do you weigh the trade-off between legislative efficiency and open political contestation when evaluating a body like the NPC?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People%27s_Congress
2. http://en.npc.gov.cn.cdurl.cn/ourresponsibilities.html
3. http://en.npc.gov.cn.cdurl.cn/NPCstructure.html
4. https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202503/06/content_WS67c8f0c8c6d0868f4e8f0787.html
5. https://npcobserver.com/about-npc/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_Committee_of_the_National_People%27s_Congress
7. http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/china_abc/2014/08/23/content_281474982987272.htm
8. http://en.npc.gov.cn.cdurl.cn/statestructure.html
9. https://www.cecc.gov/chinas-state-organizational-structure