Distinguished from the previous four amendments, the fifthamendment in 2018 to the ChineseConstitution of 1982 put forward some new propositions with ground-breaking significance. Reviewing the changes of Chinese constitution, these propositions imply the hidden logic of reform behind the Chinese Constitution of 1982. Reform is different from revolution, while revolution is the fundamental change of political order with the violence, reform is just the drastic but orderly change within the framework of the constitution. Revolution can not be compatible with the constitution and the rule of law, but reform can. The theory of “New Era” is part of the theory of the primary stage of socialism, which is different from the theory of socialist revolution. Since the mid-1990s, the construction of socialist rule of law has made great achievements on the base of the theory of the primary stage of socialism. This paper focuses on the fifthamendmentto the constitution in 2018 and tries to reveal the hidden logic of reform behind the Chinese constitution of 1982. The rule of law in the primary stage is dialectical combination of legislation and institutional reform, which requires that the leading political party be the representation of the people, centering on the fundamental interests of the people, and finding the fundamental interests of the people in the different historical phases. As the 19th Party Congress Report says,the people's desire for a better life is always the direction of leadership of the political party. Therefore, the rule of law in the era of reform should not only safeguard the interests structure of the people formed by the current legislation, but also face the future, perceive the changes in the fundamental interests of the people,and timely amend the constitution and laws in order to achieve a dynamic balance between legislation and institutional reform. After four decades of tremendous development in reform and opening up, it is in the fundamental interests of the Chinese people in the New Era to achieve global connectivity with other countries in the world. The amendmentto the constitution in 2018 incorporated the idea of community withshared future for mankind into the preface of the constitution, which is also an embodiment of the reform logic. The idea takes the Marxism, the classical thought of “Tianxia” in ancient China and the rational nationalism in all. It is a kind of wisdom that China, which has grown into an international country, has contributed to the modern world and global governance. The inclusion of the community with a shared future for mankind in the constitution by the new amendment greatly expands the connotation of socialist constituent power and international rule of law. The logic in reform of Chinese constitution of 1982 is also reflected in the dual representation system stipulated in the constitution. Dual representation system consists of the political and the legal representation. Leading political party isthe political representation, while the State Council, Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate and National Supervisory Committee under the leadership of National People’s Congress are the legal representations. In the second paragraph of Article 1 of the constitution, the new amendment clearly stipulates that “the leadership of the party is the essence of socialism with Chinese characteristics”. On the one hand, affinity to the people is the basis of the political party's legitimacy; on the other hand, the political party is the representative of the people. In thestage of reform, the political party plays a leading role in reform, and the people's needs are the direction of national legislation and reform. In terms of the legal representations, the new amendment adds a new state organ, “national supervisory committee”, which fully embodies the principle of combiningthe extrinsic rule of law and the intrinsic rule of virtue. That is, the legal representationsfor the people must adhere to the rule of law, while the political representationfor the people must adhere to rule of virtue, and the key issue to implement rule of virtue is that the leading political party should be strictly self-discipline. All of these constitute the basic contents of constructing thesocialism rule of lawwith Chinese characteristics in the new era.
张龑. 宪法修正案的改革逻辑及其证成[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2019, 5(6): 92-.
Zhang Yan. Logic of Reform and Justification of the Constitutional Amendment of China. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2019, 5(6): 92-.