The amendment was agreed to at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party in October and will be put before the National People's Congress (NPC) during its annual session in March, the Oriental Outlook said.
It will be one of three constitutional changes to be rubber-stamped during the NPC session, which is also slated to pass a landmark amendment offering constitutional protections to private property.
Another amendment will bolster state ideology by enshrining the "Three Represents" political theories of former president Jiang Zemin.
"According to the Law on Martial Law, martial law can be implemented at times when state unity is seriously endangered, or in times of turmoil, rioting or chaos to security or social and public security when normal measures are not adequate to maintain social order," the report said.
"However, a state of emergency is not only in response to social turmoil, but to many other eventualities including war, natural disaster, public health and economic crisis," it said.
The effort to put forward the constitutional amendment and legislate a state of emergency law was intensified following the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in China last year, the report said.
According to the amendment, the standing committee of the NPC will have the power to implement a state of emergency.
State of emergency legislation is already in the works and is expected to be formally passed into law in the coming years, the report said. – Sapa-AFP.
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