On March 11, 2024, China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, voted 2883 to 8, with 9 abstentions, to revise the State Council Organic Law [国务院组织法]—the first update of the statute since its enactment in December 1982. As part of a Communist Party-directed effort to “improve the organic laws of state institutions,” the revision seeks to modernize the governing statute of China’s central government. It memorializes some of the core principles and practices concerning State Council operation that have developed since 1982 and harmonizes the statute with later-enacted laws. For instance, the revision specifies the State Council’s constitutional status, guiding ideologies, and relationship with other state organs; clarifies the functions of different State Council meetings; and incorporates existing policy measures to develop a “law-based government” [法治政府]. The practical significance of these changes is thus minimal. But they nonetheless hold great symbolic value (e.g., by codifying the State Council’s duty to uphold the Party’s leadership) or can serve an important signaling purpose (e.g., by writing into law the principle of “adhering to transparency in government affairs”).

That does not change the fact, however, that the Law remains minimalist. With only 20 articles (increased from 11), it is not only the shortest state-organ organic law but also one of the shortest national laws overall. More detailed rules on the State Council’s operation are (still) found in lower-level authorities like the latest State Council Work Rules [国务院工作规则]. For this reason, instead of providing an even shorter summary, we are posting a full translation of the revised Law below, with comments on selected provisions. 🆕 marks newly added articles, whereas 🔄 marks those without substantive changes. The remaining articles were all amended to some extent, though we won’t comment on every one of them. For details, please refer to this comparison chart (in Chinese).