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Article 66 The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is elected for the same term of the National People's Congress; it shall exercise its functions and powers until a new Standing Committee is elected by the succeeding National People's Congress.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.

Article 67 The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress exercises the following functions and powers:

to interpret the Constitution and supervise its enforcement;

to enact and amend laws, with the exception of those which should be enacted by the National People's Congress;

to partially supplement and amend, when the National People's Congress is not in session, laws enacted by the National People's Congress provided that the basic principles of those laws are not contravened;

to interpret laws;

to review and approve, when the National People's Congress is not in session, partial adjustments to the plan for national economic and social development or to the state budget that prove necessary in the course of their implementation;

to supervise the work of the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate;

to annul those administrative rules and regulations, decisions or orders of the State Council that contravene the Constitution or the law;

to annual those local regulations or decisions of the organs of state power of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government that contravene the Constitution, the law or the administrative rules and regulations;

to decide, when the National People's Congress is not in session, on the choice of Ministers in charge of ministries or commissions, the Auditor General or the Secretary General of the State Council upon nomination by the Premier of the State Council;

to decide, upon nomination by the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, on the choice of other members of the Commission, when the National People's Congress is not in session;

to appoint or remove, at the recommendation of the President of the Supreme People's Court, the Vice Presidents and Judges of the Supreme People's Court, members of its Judicial Committee and the President of the Military Court;

to appoint or remove, at the recommendation of the Procurator General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Deputy Procurators-General and procurators of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, members of its Procuratorial Committee and the Chief Procurator of the Military Procuratorate, and to approve the appointment or removal of the chief procurators of the people's procuratorates of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government;

to decide on the appointment or recall of plenipotentiary representatives abroad;

to decide on the ratification or abrogation of treaties and important agreements concluded with foreign states;

to institute systems of titles and ranks for military and diplomatic personnel and of other specific titles and ranks;