This article provides source material to support the claim in The McCroskey Agrarian that government zoning and planning are a uniquely communistic feature. Go here for Issue #17 on “The Comprehensive Plan.”
Go here for a complete text of the Constitution for the People’s Republic of China:
https://npcobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PRC-Constitution-2018.pdf
[Keep in mind that this is the general constitution. China is governed by two Constitutions, this one and the one for the Chinese Communist Party, where the real power is wielded.]
Below is a synopsis and review of pertinent provisions in the People’s Constitution:
- Article 1 – China is a “socialist state governed by a people’s democratic dictatorship” which is dictatorship of the majority over the minority. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) defines what “socialism” is.
- Article 3 – China is required to “practice the principle of democratic centralism” which means that all real power is concentrated into the hands of a small group or “vanguard” which guides the CCP and the state.
- Article 5 – In China, the “state safeguards . . . the socialist legal system.” In the many references to “according to law” throughout the document, it is only the state which embodies that law as the will of “the People.”
- Articles 6-7 – All property is “owned by the whole people.” There are no private, inviolable property rights.
- Article 8 – In the country or rural areas, the state takes the form of “rural collectives.”
- Article 10 – “Land in the cities is owned by the state” which can be “expropriated” or requisitioned for the public interest. Only private land use “in an appropriate manner” is allowed.
- Article 13 – Only “lawful private property” is allowed.
- Article 15 – Only “democratic management of land use” is considered “lawful.”
- Article 30 – Democratic management requires assignment to “administrative areas” such as “provinces,” “autonomous regions,” and “cities.”
- Article 89 – All administrative areas must have a “state council” which decides “administrative measures . . . regulations . . . missions . . . drawing up and implementing plans . . .” and creating “geographic divisions . . .” (i.e. zoning).
- Article 99 – All administrative areas require “development plans” decided by “local people’s congresses.”
- Article 96 – “People’s congresses” are directed by “standing committees.”
- Article 105 – These “standing committees” establish “administrative organs”, i.e. bureaucracies.
- Article 107 – “Administrative organs” are required for “all areas of life.”
- Article 118 – Administrative organs must implement “state plans” from the central committee to “manage local economic development.”
- Article 124 – All administrative areas must have “local commissions of supervision” to ensure that administrative organs are in compliance with the central plan.
Although a direct translation of terms from Chinese into English is not always possible, it is quite clear that in this Constitution, zoning and planning governed by a central body is imperative to the definition of a “communist dictatorship.” Private property is by permission only, as long as the landholder is in compliance with the central plan. All of his activity is under bureaucratic supervision which requires obtaining permission (“permits”) from the appropriate regulative body.
- JWS, 10/10/25