La politique intérieure et les institutions chinoises après la IVe Assemblée populaire nationale

Abstract

Domestic Policy and Chinese Institutions since the Fourth Popular National Assembly. This study is a follow-up of two articles by the same author on domestic policy and Chinese institutions since the Cultural Revolution and the Tenth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party published in the Revue de l'Est (1973, N°. 4, pp 81-126 and 1974, N°. 4, pp. 5-30). The new constitution voted by the Fourth Popular National Assembly, endorses the basic principles set forth at the inception of the Chinese Republic in 1949, and which were reaffirmed during the Cultural Revolution. The Popular Chinese Republic, grounded on precepts of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tse-toung, is defined as "a socialist state dictated by the proletariat, directed by the working class and based on the alliance or workers and peasants". The state must practice "democratic centralism and uphold the regional autonomy of ethnic minorities". In the New constitution, mention is equally made of certain slogans used during "the big leap ahead" (1958) and during the Cultural Revolution, as well as the present ideological struggle against Lin Piao and Confucius. In application of the policy of simplified administration, the number of persons employed in state organizations has been reduced. The constitution itself was reduced from 106 articles to 30. As a result the institutions are only briefly described and only the basic essentials of powers and functions is enumerated. However, the author assures us, this in no way indicates that the former have been diminished. On the whole the institutions differ little from those set forth in the Constitution of 1954. The Popular National Assembly, the Council of State Affairs and the local popular assemblies and their revolutionary committees remain in place. The most noteworthy changes are the suppression of the post of President of the Republic and the introduction of the party in the constitutional text. Party direction of all organisms, real but occult since 1949, is henceforth "constitutional". The new constitution further legalizes certain institutions created since 1954, such as popular rural communes (started in 1958) and revolutionary committees which grew out of the Cultural Revolution. State organs, named or elected must "incarnate a Trinity" of aged, mature and young persons. Theoretically the Army has no administrative functions. Placed under the command of the President of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Army while remaining a combat corps, must also be a work and production corps. According to the author, an effort has been made to institutionalize and legalize the Chinese society without making it rigid in the aim of combating the ever-present menace of revisionism.