- (AFP) -- China will amend an article in its 1982 constitution
on "martial law" and change the concept to "a state of emergency"
in a move that will pave the wave for the promulgation of a state emergency
law.
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- The amendment was agreed to at a meeting of the ruling
Communist Party in October and will be put before the National People's
Congress (NPC) during its annual session in March, the Oriental Outlook
said.
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- It will be one of three constitutional changes to be
rubber-stamped during the NPC session, which is also slated to pass a landmark
amendment offering constitutional protections to private property.
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- Another amendment will bolster state ideology by enshrining
the "Three Represents" political theories of former president
Jiang Zemin.
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- "According to the Law on Martial Law, martial law
can be implemented at times when state unity is seriously endangered, or
in times of turmoil, rioting or chaos to security or social and public
security when normal measures are not adequate to maintain social order,"
the report said.
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- "However, a state of emergency is not only in response
to social turmoil, but to many other eventualities including war, natural
disaster, public health and economic crisis," it said.
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- The effort to put forward the constitutional amendment
and legislate a state of emergency law was intensified following the outbreak
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in China last year, the report said.
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- According to the amendment, the standing committee of
the NPC will have the power to implement a state of emergency.
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- State of emergency legislation is already in the works
and is expected to be formally passed into law in the coming years, the
report said.
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