By Wang Boxun, a reporter from the People's Congresses Journal

On September 15, 1954, the first session of the First National People's Congress (NPC) was solemnly inaugurated at the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. Over 1,200 NPC deputies, representing 600 million people, gathered in Beijing as masters of the country to deliberate on State affairs. This marked the beginning of centralized exercise of State power in China by the NPC, which is elected by the people through universal suffrage.

During that session, the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China was adopted, along with five fundamental laws concerning State institutions, including the Organic Law of the National People's Congress and the Organic Law of the State Council. It also approved the government work report and elected new State leaders.

The NPC is the highest organ of State power and exercises important functions and powers conferred by the Constitution and laws. It primarily acts and decides issues collectively through meetings conducted in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism and statutory procedures. Over the past 70 years, a total of 58 NPC sessions have been held.

NPC sessions involve a large number of deputies, cover a diverse agenda and are of a short duration. To ensure effective deliberation, the 1954 Constitution and the Organic Law of the National People's Congress stipulated the main aspects of the deliberation procedures at the inception of the NPC, making adherence to rules and procedures a strict requirement. The 1982 Constitution and the Rules of Procedure for the National People's Congress enacted in 1989 made specific provisions for organizing and convening NPC sessions, gradually standardizing and legalizing the deliberation procedures. In March 2021, amendments were made to both the Organic Law of the National People's Congress and the Rules of Procedure for the National People's Congress, further standardizing and improving the meeting and working systems.

According to the Constitution and laws, each NPC is elected to a term of five years. The NPC holds a session once a year, convened by its Standing Committee. A temporary session may be convened if the Standing Committee of the NPC deems it necessary or if more than one-fifth of the deputies to the NPC so propose. The first session of each NPC is convened by the Standing Committee of the previous NPC. 

The date for convening an NPC session is determined and announced by the NPC Standing Committee. The Rules of Procedure for the National People's Congress clearly stipulates that the NPC session shall be held in the first quarter of each year. Since the first session of the Ninth NPC in 1998, the NPC sessions have generally opened on March 5 each year, establishing an important political convention that facilitates the timely coordination and arrangements of the country's major tasks for the year. In 2020, the third session of the 13th NPC was postponed to May 22 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from practical experience, the amended Rules of Procedure for the National People's Congress added a provision that under special circumstances, the NPC Standing Committee may decide to advance or delay a session for an appropriate time.

An NPC session can only be held if more than two-thirds of the deputies are present. Nearly 3,000 deputies, organized into 35 delegations based on their respective electoral units, attend the session. The duration of a session is determined based on the agenda for deliberation and discussion. The longest session was the second session of the First NPC, which lasted 26 days, while the shortest was the first session of the Fourth NPC, lasting only five days. After further optimization of the meeting procedures, an NPC session now generally lasts around seven days.  

An NPC session is generally divided into five sections: The first section includes the opening of the session, listening to and deliberating on the government work report, reviewing the report on the implementation of the plan for national economic and social development for the previous year and on the draft plan for the current year, as well as the draft plan itself, reviewing the report on the execution of the central and local budgets for the previous year and on the draft central and local budgets for the current year, along with the draft budgets themselves. The second is deliberating legislative bills. The third is hearing the work reports of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. The fourth is elections and appointments (included in the agenda of the first session of each NPC). The fifth is reviewing the final drafts of resolutions and legislative bills to be submitted for voting, voting on the resolutions and bills and closing the session.

An NPC session is organized through preparatory meetings, Presidium meetings, plenary meetings of the session, plenary meetings of delegations and group meetings. Before the opening of the session, a preparatory meeting is held to elect the Presidium and the Secretary-General and approve the agenda and the decision on other preparatory matters. Following the preparatory meeting, the first meeting of the Presidium is convened to elect several executive chairpersons and decide on the session schedule. After the first Presidium meeting, the opening plenary session is convened, and following each plenary session, each delegation holds its own plenary and group meetings to thoroughly deliberate on the matters submitted for review.

Deputies to the NPC are not held legally liable for their speeches or votes during NPC sessions. Resolutions are typically adopted by a majority vote of all deputies using an anonymous electronic voting system, while amendments to the Constitution are decided by anonymous ballot, requiring a two-thirds majority vote of all deputies for approval.

According to the Rules of Procedure for the National People's Congress, NPC sessions shall be held publicly, and the agenda, schedule and meetings thereof shall be made public. Press conferences and briefings are held during the session, and "deputies'passages" and "ministers' passages" are established to comprehensively publicize the session’s progress and outcomes, showcase the conduct of deputies and respond to public concerns on livelihood issues.

The annual NPC session is a major event in China's political affairs. With the continuous improvement of the NPC's meeting system and working procedures, the entire population can better exercise State power through the system of the people's congresses.