Page "National People's Congress" Paragraph 2

In theory, the NPC is vested with great lawmaking powers.

However, for most of its existence, it has acted as a nearly powerless rubber-stamp legislature, ratifying decisions that have already been made by the Communist Party of China and the country's executive organs.

This has long been typical of legislatures in Communist countries.

Since the 1990s, the NPC has become a forum for mediating policy differences between different parts of the Party, the government, and groups of society.

For the NPC to formally defeat a proposal put before it is a rare, but not non-existent event.

However, the BBC still describes the NPC as a rubber-stamp for party decisions, One of its members, Hu Xiaoyan, told the BBC that she has no power to help her constituents.

She was quoted as saying, " As a parliamentary representative, I don't have any real power.