| Constitution of the People's Republic of China | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Jurisdiction |  People's Republic of China |
| Ratified | March 5, 1978 (1978-03-05) |
| Author(s) | National People's Congress |
| Supersedes | 1975 Constitution of the People's Republic of China |
| Full text | |
 Constitution of the People's Republic of China (1978) atWikisource | |
The1978 Constitution of thePeople's Republic of China was acommunist state constitution promulgated in 1978. This was the PRC's 3rdconstitution, and was adopted at the 1st Meeting of the5th National People's Congress on March 5, 1978, two years after the downfall of theGang of Four.
The number of articles grew from the 1975 Constitution's 30 articles to double the amount. The courts and the procurates, which were minimized or dumped altogether in the1975 Constitution of the People's Republic of China, were somewhat restored. A greater degree of separation of the party from the state was also instituted, with thePremier regaining the right to nominatecabinet ministers and theNational People's Congress no longer defined as an extension of theChinese Communist Party. A number ofchecks and balances present in the1954 Constitution, includingterm limits for party leaders,elections and moreindependence in the judiciary, were restored.[1]
Regarding religion, the 1978 Constitution stated, "[C]itizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism."[2]: 15
The 1978 Constitution was the first Constitution in the PRC to touch explicitly on thepolitical status of Taiwan. It said that "Taiwan is part of China" and said that the PRC "must liberate Taiwan, and finish the great task of reunifying the motherland". However, in 1979, the PRC dropped the liberation stance and opted for peaceful reunification instead. The1982 Constitution mentioned that "Taiwan is a sacred part of the territory of the People's Republic of China" instead of just "China".
Citizens' rights were also reinstated somewhat. The right to strike was still present, although it would be removed in the 1982 Constitution. However, the required support for the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system remained as part of citizens' duties. Nevertheless, the 1978 Constitution witnessed the first time since the 1950s that the document was considered authoritative enough for its provisions to merit the government's attention. For instance, after theDemocracy Wall movement saw students using the constitutionally-guaranteed right to usebig-character posters to criticize the government, the party responded by ordering a series of constitutional amendments which deleted this right in 1980. Previously, during theTiananmen Square incident in 1976 when this same right had been invoked to criticizeMao Zedong and theGang of Four, the government ordered thePeople's Liberation Army to suppress dissent without any effort to reconcile that action with the constitution.
Altogether, the Constitution still suffered from the backdrop of the just-gone-byCultural Revolution. Revolutionary language was still persistent (such as "Revolutionary Committees"), although the slogans were gone. The 1978 Constitution survived for four years before being superseded by the current (1982)Constitution of China during theDeng Xiaoping era.
In addition to inheriting some fundamental principles from the 1954 Constitution, the 1978 Constitution officially included theFour Modernizations policy with an emphasis on socialist democracy, scientific and educational development. It also mandated in the preamble part that China must "be constructed into a great, powerful, modern socialist country in agriculture, industry, national defense, science and technology within the century".
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