Chinese President Hu Jintao said Wednesday that a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution has basically taken shape in China, which greatly promoted and safeguarded the country's reform, opening up and modernization drive.

China has formulated its existing Constitution and made four constitutional amendments since it started reforms and opening to the outside world in late 1978, the president said while addressing a grand rally in Beijing to mark the 50th founding anniversary of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), described the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978 as the turning point for the country since New China was founded in 1949.

It was after that meeting that China entered a new historic period of development and the people's congress system also got on a new track of development.

The Party called at the meeting to improve the socialist legal system and institutionalize and legalize democracy so as to ensure the stability, continuity and authority of the legal system and laws.

Since then great importance has been attached to the building of socialist democratic politics and to improve the building of the people's congress system and the work of people's congresses.

"We have expanded general election of deputies to people's congresses to the county level with the introduction of multi-candidate election system," said Hu.

While improving the powers of the NPC Standing Committee, it is stipulated that the NPC and its standing committee jointly exercise the state legislative power and supervise the implementation of the Constitution.

Since 1978, the NPC and its standing committee have made more than 200 sets of laws, the State Council, or the cabinet, has formulated more than 650 administrative regulations, local people's congresses and their standing committees promulgated over 7,500 regional laws and regulations, and legislatures in areas with ethnic autonomy enacted over 600 regulations on the autonomy and special regulations, the president said.

All the laws and regulations are effective currently, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2004)