![handle is hein.journals/ajal22 and id is 1 raw text is: Australian Journal of Asian Law, 2022, Vol 22 No 1, Article 01: 1-15
Popular Sovereignty and Constitutional Development in
China
Aisi Zhang*
In 2018, the Fifth Amendment to China's Constitution changed the name of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress
(NPC) to the 'Constitution and Law Committee'. This involved more than a name change; rather, faced with a legitimacy crisis,
the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has a strong interest in augmenting the existing basis of legitimacy and creating a
new source of power resting on popular sovereignty. The idea of popular sovereignty in the Chinese context is defined as the
combination of sovereignty of the people and leadership of the CPC. As the central institutional device to guarantee people's
sovereignty. the people's congress system has its own difficulties. Althoughll it is te higtest authority endowed by te
( ontilionollthe \R'' is tal ly I 'stirng on p>ap)(er, weak/ in pat ice'l>body. TIhe ealion of te (ont illutionl nId<t t olawo/I iltee.
entrusled ith1 the po/er of rev iec ly a( decision isstedl subseqIIent i >to the Fifil .\mendlment,. cIl can onltritle to enhacming the role
of the \PC. This >could be viewel ds rti of te o PI'(s efforts to> implement functionltly IIe /rinciple of / popular sov> ereignly,
which, i. In tln. cn hel> upihl old n saegurd regnI ime legitimaIcy in China.
On 11 \;arch 2018. the 1:h National 'eople's Congress (NI'C) of China alloptedl the IFiflh
.AmendIment o the current 1)82 Constilution. This is the most receni constilutional amenIment.
and has att racted widespreal attention both insile and( outsilde China. \hile many China watchers
have floused on provisions covering presillenial term limits, a new supervisory organ, an the
constitutional staus of'Xi Jinping Thoughti (Shrik. 2018: Lin, 2011): Zhang and (insburg 2011)). lew
observers have examined the f'act that the L;aw (Commit e,. a special committee subordlinie to the
NI'('. was renamed the ('onstilution and Law (Commillee. This involves more than a name change:
rather. a legitimacy-based perspective is proposed here lo explain this new constilutional
(evelopment.
'Legitimcy' is a complex term. and( it is usedI in many lisciplines,. incluling sociology. philosophy.
and( law. Following ipset, this article (del'ines it as involving 'the capacity of the system [state] to
engender and mainiin the beliel hat existing political instilutions are the most appropriale ones
fIor the society' ('ipset 1)81). The concept of legitimacy was introlucedl into the C(hinese political
science (discourse in t he second halfofIhe 1)90,. and since then the search for legitimacy has lain in
the centre of Chinese polilics (IHolbig. 2011). The ruling (Communist 'arty ol(f hina (CI'C) is qluite
concernedl with ils legitimacy. especially in view of the f'all of the (Communisi regimes throughout
Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union.
In explaining the CPC's legitimacy, scholars often disagree fundamentally over the question of
what constitutes the legitimacy of the Chinese communist regime. In a nutshell, the foundations of
regime legitimacy in China are typically reduced to five main factors: economic growth, Chinese
cultural values, nationalism, communist ideologies, and institutionalisation. However, due to their
inherent dilemmas and limitations, these legitimation strategies remain fragile and are not
sustainable over the long run, which poses a severe challenge to political legitimacy of the CPC's rule
(Xiao, 2004; Dong M, 2005; He, 2009). In view of this problem, the CPC has a strong interest in
augmenting the existing basis of legitimacy and creating a new source of power resting on popular
sovereignty, a much more enduring basis. The idea of popular sovereignty in the Chinese context is
defined as the combination of sovereignty of the people and leadership of the CPC. As the central
institutional device to ensure that the people exercise sovereign power, the people's congress system
has its own difficulties. In theory, the NPC is the centrepiece of a unified state structure but, in
reality, it has, in most respects, operated as a relatively weak legislature. The Fifth Amendment
Assistant Professor, Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Law. This work was supported by Post-doctoral Research Funds
of Shaanxi Province of China [grant number 2018BSHEDZZ77] and Soft Science Research Funds of Shaanxi Province of
China [grant number 2021KRM027].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ajal22&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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