In China, the term of legislation means specially defined activities by a specially appointed organ to work out, recognize certain laws and regulations by using its designed rights, following certain procedures and applying the necessary technique. China's current legislation system is one for the division of legislative power, which has many levels existing at the same time and is a combination of categories. It is under the unified leadership of the central government while at the same time enjoys a certain degree of decentralization.

China's legislation includes the legislation of the National People's Congress and its standing Committee, regulation making by the state council and its relevant departments, as well as the legislation of ordinary localities, ethnic autonomous regions, special economic zones and special administrative regions.

China's current legislation structure has its own distinctive characteristics. One of them, from the angle of the legislative power-division point of view, is its centralization and division of power, or a certain degree of decentralization; the structure exists at serval different levels and is the combination of many categories. Under this system, the top-powered state organ or its standing body conducts a unified leadership; the State Council holds great power and local governments have limited power.

Centralization with a certain degree of decentralization means, on the one hand, the most important legislative power, i.e. national legislation – that of the Constitution and state laws – belong to the central authorities, which takes a leading position in the whole legislation structure. National legislation can only be carried out by the organization of the supreme state power and its standing organ while neither local organization nor any other organ has such power. No administrative and local laws or regulation is allowed to contravene the Constitution and state laws. Though in some exceptions, some laws and regulations of autonomous regions may not be completely in line with the Constitution and state laws, while formulating these laws and regulations, as a practice of regional autonomy, the regional legislative organization must be abide by the Constitution, the Law of Self-government in Minority Autonomous Regions and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Legislation (Law on Legislation), and report to the standing Committee of the NPC for approval or record keeping. This system in fact guarantees the leadership of national legislations in drawing up of autonomous regional laws and regulations. On the other hand, it means that the country's legislative power is conducted by multiple sections of both central and local organizations. It reflects the most profound progress, or change, of China's current legislative system. The character of multi-level existence and multi-category combination further demonstrate its decentralization to a certain degree.

Multi-level existence means the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee make state laws; the state Council and its relevant departments draw specific regulations respectively; and relevant authentic organs of ordinary localities and governments formulate local regulations. The practice of legislation and the authenticity of laws and regulations made by the above-mentioned three groups of organizations are of different levels, but the laws and regulations of different levels co-exist in China's legislative system.