China’s devolved lawmaking put on notice as Xi Jinping signals tighter control
- Some provinces given greater lawmaking powers in 2015 have superseded national legislation and others have been lax, president says
- Comments in internal November speech, published on Monday, indicate provincial lawmaking will come under greater scrutiny
“Upholding the integrity of national laws is a serious political problem. Our country is a unitary state,” Xi said in an internal speech last November that was published on Monday by the Communist Party’s flagship magazine Qiushi.
Xi’s comments indicated that after several years of decentralising legislative power, he intends to centralise it again having been dissatisfied with a lack of unity in lawmaking, as Beijing seeks to tighten control over local policy in almost all areas.
China’s legislatures at provincial and lower levels are allowed to pass local laws on certain matters, including on economy, health and education, provided they do not contradict national laws.
Although Xi hailed the 2015 amendment delegating power to make local laws to 273 additional cities as “generally good”, he slammed unspecified local laws for superseding national legislation as well as “legislative slack” – referring to their lax control.