Foreign Law Guide

FOREIGN LAW GUIDE

Researching the Law of China

At a glance

Legal system family
Socialist legal system built on written instruments in a fixed hierarchy. Article 5 of the Constitution has the Republic govern the country according to law and build a socialist country under the rule of law, and provides that no law, administrative regulation or local regulation may contravene the Constitution. 1
Official gazette
No single gazette of record. Article 62 of the Legislation Law makes the text published in the Gazette of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress the standard text of a law, and articles 78, 89 and 97 name a different gazette for administrative regulations, for local regulations and for rules. 2
Constitution in force
Constitution of the People's Republic of China, adopted and promulgated on 4 December 1982 and amended by constitutional amendments passed in 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2018. 1
Language of the authoritative text
Chinese. Article 9 of the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language makes Putonghua and standardised Chinese characters the language of official business in state organs, except as the law otherwise provides. 3

A Chinese statute has a standard text, and which printed copy that is has a statutory answer. Article 62 of the Legislation Law requires a law, once signed and promulgated, to be carried in the Gazette of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, on the Congress's own website, and in newspapers circulated nationwide. Then it adds one short sentence that decides citations: the text published in the Standing Committee Gazette is the standard text.

That sentence is not reserved for statutes. It appears three more times in the same act, each time with a different gazette in it. Article 78 puts administrative regulations in the State Council Gazette. Article 89 puts local regulations, autonomy regulations and separate regulations in the standing committee gazette of the people's congress at the level that made them. Article 97 puts departmental rules in the State Council Gazette or a department's own gazette, and local government rules in the gazette of the government concerned. There is no single Chinese gazette of record. Which one carries the standard text follows from what kind of instrument you are holding.

The consequence for research is direct. A provincial regulation reproduced on a national portal is not the standard text of that regulation; the standing committee gazette of that province is. A ministry rule found in a compendium is not the standard text; the ministry gazette or the State Council Gazette is. The distinction only bites when two wordings differ, which is exactly the moment it matters.

The National Database of Laws and Regulations is where most people now begin, and it is worth being precise about what it is. The list in article 62, as that article stands after the amendment of 13 March 2023, names the Standing Committee Gazette, the Congress's website and nationally circulated newspapers. The Chinese word for a database does not occur anywhere in the act as served here. The database is a finding tool of real value and the act does not give what it displays the standing it gives the Gazette.

Two further provisions are worth carrying in the head. Article 61 requires a law to state its commencement date expressly, so an entry into force should never have to be inferred. Article 63 requires a new text of the law to be published when a law is amended.

That is a different arrangement from a consolidation service. What accumulates is a succession of complete texts, each promulgated in its own right, rather than one living text with an amendment history attached to every article. Anyone who has worked with the Italian or Austrian services in this guide will notice the absence immediately, and will notice it hardest when the question is what the wording was on a particular day.

The Constitution carries its own history in its title note. It was adopted by the Fifth National People's Congress at its fifth session on 4 December 1982, promulgated and brought into force the same day by an announcement of the Congress, and amended by constitutional amendments passed in 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2018. Article 5 has the Republic govern the country according to law and build a socialist country under the rule of law, and puts every law, administrative regulation and local regulation under the Constitution.

Nothing in the Constitution names a language for its own text. Article 4 gives every nationality the freedom to use and develop its own spoken and written language and to keep or reform its own customs. Article 19, in the article about education, has the state promote the Putonghua in nationwide use. The provision that answers the question is statutory rather than constitutional: article 9 of the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language makes Putonghua and standardised Chinese characters the language of official business in state organs, except where a law provides otherwise.

Where that act is read is instructive in itself. The State Council portal keeps a gazette archive addressable by year and issue number, and the 2001 issue carrying this act prints the Order of the President above the text, with the date of adoption and the date of commencement in it. An act read that way arrives with its promulgating instrument attached, which is not true of the retyped copies that circulate on provincial and commercial sites.

One provision of the Legislation Law is easy to read straight past. The first paragraph of article 62 requires the order of the President signing and promulgating a law to state the organ that made it and the dates of adoption and of commencement. The order is not decoration wrapped round the text. It carries two of the three dates a citation needs, and a copy of a Chinese statute that arrives without its order has quietly lost them.

Three access notes from preparing this page, because they shape what could be verified. The Congress's own host refused a secure connection to an automated client, failing the handshake outright, while its plain connection answered and sent article addresses back to the index. The database returned four hundred and fifty five bytes of application shell and no law at all. The State Council portal answered every request normally and serves both the constitutional text and the gazette archive, which is why every field above is traced there.

Primary sources online

SOURCES

  1. Constitution of the People's Republic of China, text as amended in 2018. Zhongguo Zhengfu Wang, the State Council portal of the People's Republic of China. https://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2018-03/22/content_5276318.htm. Accessed 2026-08-30. The title note on the served text records adoption by the Fifth National People's Congress at its fifth session on 4 December 1982, promulgation and entry into force by an announcement of the National People's Congress on the same day, and amendment by constitutional amendments passed in 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2018. Article 5 states that the People's Republic governs the country according to law and builds a socialist country under the rule of law, and that no law, administrative regulation or local regulation may contravene the Constitution. Article 4 gives every nationality the freedom to use and develop its own spoken and written language; article 19 has the state promote Putonghua for nationwide use. Neither article names a language for the Constitution's own text.
  2. Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, text as amended on 13 March 2023. Zhongguo Zhengfu Wang, the State Council portal of the People's Republic of China. https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2023-03/14/content_5746569.htm. Accessed 2026-08-30. The act that decides which printed copy of a Chinese instrument is the standard one. Article 62 requires a law, once signed and promulgated, to be carried in the Gazette of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, on the National People's Congress website and in newspapers circulated nationally, and provides that the text published in the Standing Committee Gazette is the standard text. Article 78 says the same for administrative regulations and the State Council Gazette, article 89 for local regulations and the standing committee gazette of the level concerned, and article 97 for departmental and local government rules. Article 61 requires a law to state its commencement date expressly, and article 63 requires a new text of a law to be published when the law is amended. The words for a database do not occur anywhere in the fetched bytes.
  3. Order of the President No. 37 and the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, State Council Gazette 2001 no. 2. Guowuyuan Gongbao, the Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2001/content_61066.htm. Accessed 2026-08-30. A gazette page rather than a retyped statute: the Order of the President that promulgated the act sits above the text, records adoption by the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress at its eighteenth session on 31 October 2000, and gives 1 January 2001 as the commencement date. Article 2 defines the standard spoken and written language as Putonghua and standardised Chinese characters; article 9 makes them the language of official business in state organs unless the law provides otherwise; article 8 preserves the freedom of every nationality to use and develop its own language.

Reviewed 2026-08-30. 3 sources cited on this page.