China is one of the countries with the longest histories in the world. The Chinese people of all ethnic groups jointly created its magnificent culture and have a proud revolutionary tradition.
After 1840, feudal China gradually became a semi-colonial, semifeudal country. The Chinese people, wave upon wave, waged heroic struggles for national independence and liberation and for democracy and freedom.
In the 20th century, momentous historical changes took place in China.
The Revolution of 1911, led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, abolished the feudal monarchy and gave birth to the Republic of China. However, the historic mission of the Chinese people to oppose imperialism and feudalism was not yet accomplished.
In 1949, after engaging in protracted, arduous and tortuous struggles, armed and in other forms, the Chinese people of all ethnic groups led by the Communist Party of China with Chairman Mao Zedong as its leader finally overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, won a great victory in the New Democratic Revolution, and founded the People's Republic of China. The Chinese people thus secured power and became masters of their own country.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, our country gradually achieved the transition from a new democratic society to a socialist society. The socialist transformation of private ownership of the means of production has been completed, the system of exploitation of man by man abolished, and a socialist system established. The people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants, which in essence is a dictatorship of the proletariat, has been consolidated and developed. The Chinese people and the Chinese People's Liberation Army have defeated imperialist and hegemonist aggression, sabotage and armed provocations, safeguarded national independence and security, and strengthened national defense. Major achievements have been made in economic development. An independent and relatively complete socialist industrial system has now basically been established, and agricultural output has markedly increased. Significant advances have been made in education, science, culture and other fields, and education about socialist thought has made notable progress. The lives of the people have been considerably improved.
Both the victory in China's New Democratic Revolution and the successes in its socialist cause have been achieved by the Chinese people of all ethnic groups under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought by upholding truth, correcting errors, and surmounting many difficulties and obstacles. Our country will long remain in the primary stage of socialism. The fundamental task for our country is to concentrate on achieving socialist modernization along the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We the Chinese people of all ethnic groups will continue, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, to uphold the people's democratic dictatorship, stay on the socialist road, carry out reform and opening up, steadily improve the socialist institutions, develop the socialist market economy and socialist democracy, improve socialist rule of law, apply the new development philosophy, and work hard in a spirit of self-reliance to modernize step by step the country's industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology and promote coordinated material, political, cultural-ethical, social and ecological advancement, in order to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
In our country the exploiting class, as a class, has been eliminated, but class struggle will continue to exist within a certain scope for a long time to come. The people of China must fight against those domestic and foreign forces and elements that are hostile to and undermine our country's socialist system.
Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China. It is the sacred duty of all the Chinese people, including our fellow Chinese in Taiwan, to achieve the great reunification of the motherland.
The cause of building socialism must rely on workers, peasants and intellectuals and unite all forces that can be united. Through the long process of revolution, development and reform, a broad patriotic united front has formed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with the participation of other political parties and people's organizations and including all socialist working people, people involved in building socialism, patriots who support socialism, and patriots who support China's reunification and are dedicated to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This united front will continue to be consolidated and developed. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is a broadly representative organization of the united front, and has played a significant historical role. In the future, it will play an even more important role in the country's political and social life and its friendly foreign activities, in socialist modernization and in safeguarding the unity and solidarity of the country. The system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China will continue and develop long into the future.
The People's Republic of China is a unified multiethnic state founded by the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. Socialist ethnic relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony are established and will continue to be strengthened. In the struggle to safeguard ethnic unity, we should oppose major ethnic group chauvinism, which mainly refers to Han chauvinism, and local ethnic chauvinism. The state makes every effort to promote the shared prosperity of all the country's ethnic groups.
The achievements of China's revolution, development and reform would have been impossible without the support of the world's people. The future of China is closely bound up with the future of the world. China pursues an independent foreign policy, observes the five principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual nonaggression, mutual noninterference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence, keeps to a path of peaceful development, follows a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up, works to develop diplomatic relations and economic and cultural exchanges with other countries, and promotes the building of a human community with a shared future. China consistently opposes imperialism, hegemonism and colonialism, works to strengthen its solidarity with the people of all other countries, supports oppressed peoples and other developing countries in their just struggles to win and safeguard their independence and develop their economies, and strives to safeguard world peace and promote the cause of human progress.
This Constitution affirms, in legal form, the achievements of the struggles of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and stipulates the fundamental system and task of the state. It is the fundamental law of the state and has supreme legal force. The people of all ethnic groups, all state organs and armed forces, all political parties and social organizations, and all enterprises and public institutions in the country must treat the Constitution as the fundamental standard of conduct; they have a duty to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and ensure its compliance.