Looking beyond the headlines about China's constitution

By Harald Buchmann

The National People’s Congress of China as expected passed the New Constitution. The approval rate of 2 against and almost 3000 in favor is unusual in Western countries, where parliaments are there to debate. But also in the West, most important negotiations take place before parliamentary votes (think US tax reform, for example). So the lack of argument during the NPC meeting doesn’t mean there is no debate behind the scenes. There were 118 written proposals and 2,639 pieces of written advice used as inputs to reach the 21 amendments of the constitution. To reduce these changes to the single question of whether there are term limits for political offices, is like saying Germany is threatened, because the Chancellor has no term limits. In fact, the option for Xi Jinping to remain president past his second term is really rather symbolic, since the real power of Xi lies in his position as chairman of the Communist Party – which didn’t have term limits to begin with. So, while everyone may have their opinion about the removal of term limits, let’s look at some other relevant facts about this change.

Shen Chunyao (2nd L), secretary of the Bill Group of Secretariat of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, and Zheng Shuna (2nd R), deputy secretary of the Bill Group of Secretariat of the first session of the 13th NPC and vice chairperson of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, take questions at a press conference on an amendment to the country's Constitution in Beijing, capital of China, March 11, 2018.[Photo: Xinhua]

1.The new thoughts include both Xi Jinping Thought on New-Era Sino-Socialism, as well as the Scientific Outlook on Development, which was developed under the rule of Hu Jintao. Interesting to me that both are included at the same time. Behind the floury names, there is very concrete policy: These strategic papers among other changes moved China from a pure focus on rapid growth towards development of ecology, culture, and society. China’s GDP stood at 1,6bn US$ in 2004, when the constitution was last amended. Now it stands at 13bn US$. So the shift in focus is not correcting a “mistake”, but rather is the consequence of the success of previous policies, which lead to new challenges.

2.Eradication of absolute poverty until 2020 is not just a CPC initiative any more, but a government duty defined by the constitution. 30 years ago, many 100 million Chinese lived in absolute poverty, even desolation. That China now can earnestly plan the complete eradication of absolute poverty, is beyond what could have been hoped for, even in the 1990s.

3.Building a shared future for humanity is an interesting addition, coming also from Xi Jinping Thought: to my knowledge very few countries have thoughts about a country’s impact on other countries and the peoples of the world written into their constitution.

4.The leadership of the CPC written in the constitution is an odd turn towards rule of law: as this rule is already an unquestionable fact, at least now it is formalized in law. Whether one is for or against one-party rule, at least the constitution now matches reality, which should be welcomed by anyone.

5.Cooperation with China's “democratic parties” (i.e. not the Communist Party) and other organizations, as well as harmony between all peoples of China are added. 

6.Socialist core values, which include goals like “freedom, democracy, prosperity, and harmony” are further emphasized by becoming a part of the constitution. Wealth not just for the country, but also distributed, so that there is enough for everyone.  

7.All state functionaries shall take a public oath of allegiance to the Constitution when assuming office

I will stop here and pause for the last three points in combination. First of all, it should be clear that China takes the right to have a different definition of democracy than the West. Given that many Western governments have approval ratings far below 50% of the population, I tend to agree with some Chinese observers who say that the Western form of democracy recently has been failing to provide the people with a government they like. For decades the Chinese government boasts very high approval ratings in all studies on the subject, which may be stemming from the fact, that the economy is thriving, and has been thriving for more than 3 decades. But isn’t that exactly proof of successful governance? 

Economic growth has negative side effects, such as ecological degradation. This has been an important change in policy of the CPC in recent years and has been entered in the constitution as well: Apart from economic affairs and urban and rural development, the State Council also has the function and power of directing and administering ecological advancement.

What I am saying is, the Chinese government has found ways of quite reliably doing what the majority of the Chinese expect them to do, thereby created an environment of opportunity for individuals to thrive, and for most people not to be left behind. From now on, all new office holders have to take an oath of allegiance to a constitution which requires striving for freedom, democracy and harmony. One has to be a hopeless cynic to assume, that some 80 million CPC members and countless state functionaries will all cold-blooded take an oath and not care about it. My personal feeling is rather that the search for a Chinese form of democracy is real. It won’t have a Chinese Donald Trump competing against a Chinese Hillary Clinton, but it will innovate more and more ways to give people voices, while not drowning the wise thoughts under hysterical cries. 

As a foreigner, my advice to all foreign China-watchers is: observe, don’t judge. China doesn’t force us to follow their system. Nor should we claim superiority of our system. Competition is good for business. Let political systems compete too, for the betterment of human society. 

(Harald Buchmann is a Swiss economic analyst and business advisor based in Beijing)