China's Constitution has defined, in principle, the legislative power of the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee. According to the Constitution, the NPC exercises the following legislative powers:

-- To amend the Constitution;

In China, amendments to the Constitution are to be proposed by the Standing Committee of the NPC or by more than one-fifth of all deputies to the NPC and adopted by a majority vote of more than two-thirds of all the deputies.

-- To enact and amend basic statutes concerning criminal offenses and civil affairs;

-- To enact and amend statutes concerning State organs, which generally refer to various kinds of organizational laws;

-- To enact and amend basic statutes concerning other matters, such as laws on election, nationality and marriage;

The NPC Standing Committee has been given legislative power to meet the objective requirements of the country's reform, opening and modernization drive.

The NPC Standing Committee exercises the following powers:

-- To enact and amend statutes with the exception of those which should be enacted by the NPC;

-- To enact, when the NPC is not in session, partial supplements and amendments to statutes enacted by the NPC provided that they do not contravene the basic principles of these statutes;

-- To interpret the Constitution and statutes;

-- To annul administrative rules and regulations, decisions and orders of the State Council that contravene the Constitution or the statutes;

-- To annul local regulations or decisions of the organs of state power of provinces, autonomous regions and centrally-administered municipalities that contravene the Construction, the statutes or the administrative rules and regulations.