Introduction China's Achievements in Promoting the Rule of Law

The rule of law is an essential manifestation of human civilization, and the fundamental guideline for modern state governance. In his speech at a key meeting in 2014, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said, “Through-out modern and contemporary history, all countries must have shifted from the rule of man to the rule of law before they successfully realized modernization. On the contrary, some other countries, despite their rapid development, did not step into modernization, but fell into ‘traps’ in some form or other, and were caught in economic and social stagnation or even regression instead. This is largely related to the lack of the rule of law.”(1) The choice between the rule of law and the rule of man is a fundamental issue in the history of political civilization. The rule of law means there are well-crafted laws and they are abided by the whole society and will not change if there is a change in the views and focuses of the leaders or even if there is a change in the leadership itself. The rule of law is a product of modern political progress and the most effective way to safeguard long-term national stability, social harmony, and equity and justice.

On May 3, 2017, during his visit to China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, Xi emphasized, “Only when the rule of law is valued and implemented will our country be prosperous, and our people be at peace. Otherwise, both the country and the people will be thrown into chaos.” History and practice have this proven time and again. The rule of law is also the only way to modernize a country's governance system and capacity. Since the policy of reform and opening up was adopted in 1978, the CPC has led the Chinese people into the two Chinese miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, with various national systems maturing, improving, and becoming well-established. These two achievements actually stem from the power of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the Chinese governance system, and are guaranteed by the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.

Both the CPC and the Chinese people have always considered it important to develop the rule of law. During the New Democratic Revolution (1919-1949), whose primary goal was to make the people masters of the country, the CPC formulated the Outline of the Constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic for the provisional Soviet Republic established in 1931, and other laws and decrees. It also established the Ma Xiwu adjudication method, named after judge Ma Xiwu, who instituted modern mediation in a border Communist base in the 1940s. During the period of socialist revolution and construction after 1949, the Party led the people to enact the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (1954) and a series of important laws and regulations on state organizations, election, marriage, and other fields, establishing a socialist legal framework and judicial system.

Since the reform and opening up, the CPC has proposed to “ensure that laws are put in place, observed, and strictly enforced and that anyone who violates the law is held to account”. The 15th CPC National Congress held in 1997 decided to make “law-based governance” a basic principle for governing the country, set “the establishment of a socialist law-based country” as an essential goal for socialist modernization, and put forward the task of building a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. The Constitution explicitly stated in 1999, “The People's Republic of China shall practice law-based governance and build a socialist state under the rule of law.” In 2004, the Constitution added, “The state shall respect and protect human rights” to guarantee human rights.

The 18th CPC National Congress held in 2012 marked the rule of law entering a new era in China. Since then, the CPC has advanced law-based governance and accelerated the development of the socialist rule of law. To promote comprehensive law-based governance, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee released a policy document, Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Certain Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-Based Governance of China. After the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017, the Commission for Comprehensive Law-Based Governance Under the CPC Central Committee was established and took major decisions on the subject from a global and strategic perspective. The Plan on Building the Rule of Law in China (2020-2025) issued by the CPC Central Committee in 2021 is the first plan devoted to developing the rule of law in China since 1949. It is a programmatic document for promoting comprehensive law-based governance in the new era. With the implementation of comprehensive law-based governance since the 18th CPC National Congress, the role of the rule of law in consolidating foundations, stabilizing expectations, and generating long-term benefits has been given full play.

China has witnessed historic changes and achievements in its development of the socialist rule of law. First, the Constitution has been amended and its implementation strengthened. The Chinese socialist system of laws takes the Constitution as its core. The Constitution is the country's fundamental law and the overriding charter for governance. Enjoying supreme legal status as the nation's most authoritative and effective law, it is fundamental, all-inclusive, consistent, and stable. Ruling the country according to the Constitution is the primary task and fundamental guideline for law-based governance. No organization or individual has the prerogative to overstep the Constitution and laws.

In 2018, the National People's Congress (NPC) made the fifth amendment to the Constitution, including new stipulations in the guiding ideology for the nation, CPC leadership, term limit for presidency, legislative power of cities with subordinate districts, and supervisory organs to respond to the needs of the times. New measures have been introduced to strengthen the implementation of the Constitution. Content on upholding CPC leadership has been added to the Constitution, and the provision on establishing the National Supervisory Commission has been made. The constitutional setup of China's state institutions has shifted from “governments, courts, and procuratorates” to “governments, commission, courts, and procuratorates”.

December 4 has been designated as National Constitution Day. State functionaries take a public oath to the Constitution when taking office. A national award system of medals and honorary titles stipulated by the Constitution has been implemented. China has also enacted and strengthened the working procedures for filing and reviewing local laws and regulations. The National Anthem Law, National Flag Law, and National Emblem Law have been enacted or amended to implement the national symbol and emblem system stipulated by the Constitution. The Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has been enacted and implemented in accordance with the Constitution, implementing the policy of “one country, two systems”and safeguarding national unity in line with the rule of law. The state authorities respect the Constitution's supremacy and have strengthened its implementation, laying the foundation of national governance.

Second, the Chinese socialist system of laws has been improved. The law is an essential means of governing the country, and well-drafted laws are a necessary guarantee for fairness and justice. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Chinese socialist system of laws has become increasingly complete thanks to the efforts made to promote legislation in crucial areas. Many laws, as well as administrative, local, autonomous, and specific regulations, have been enacted and improved. For example, the legislation law has been amended to improve the legislative system, and a foreign investment law enacted to improve the laws on China's opening up to the outside world. An administrative law has also been enacted and the civil service law has been amended to improve the legislation on the organization of state institutions. A public cultural service guarantee law has been enacted to make up for the gaps in legislation in the cultural sector. Furthermore, a food safety law and a law on promoting basic medical and health care have been enacted to provide legal protection for people's wellbeing. In addition, China has formulated state security law and cybersecurity law to safeguard national security, and amended the environmental protection law and drawn up the soil contamination prevention and control law to protect the ecology with the strictest system and the rule of law. A civil code has been adopted, the first such code to be legislated in Chinese history, providing an excellent example for codification in other fields. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the NPC and its Standing Committee have passed the amendments to the Constitution, enacted 48 laws, amended 203, made nine legal interpretations, and adopted 79 decisions on legal and major issues.

As of December 2020, there were 282 laws, 608 administrative regulations, and more than 12,000 local regulations in force in China. Promoting good governance with good laws has strengthened the cornerstone of the Chinese socialist system of laws.

Third, efforts to build a government based on the rule of law have gathered momentum. Laws become effective and authoritative only when they are implemented. Since 2012, governments at all levels have improved their law-based administration. The administrative law enforcement system has been reformed and the enforcement procedures have been improved. Thirty-two local governments and departments around China have piloted the three requirements – making administrative law enforcement public, recording the full process of law enforcement, and legal review of major law enforcement decisions. Prominent problems such as abuse of power or omissions have been resolved. The State Council has cancelled 44 percent of the items requiring its review and approval and abolished non-administrative license examinations and approvals. Products and services subject to central and local government pricing have been slashed by more than 80 percent and 50 percent respectively.

Lists detailing the power and responsibilities of all governments and their departments at the provincial, municipal, and county levels have been published. An interim regulation on major administrative decisionmaking procedures has been enacted. Local governments and various central departments now pilot to introduce a scientific, democratic, and legitimate decision-making procedure. They generally have a legal adviser system and a government lawyer system to improve the quality and efficiency of decision-making. To strengthen the curbs on administrative power and its oversight and enhance accountability, the State Council has conducted a supervisory inspection for four consecutive years. Administrative reconsideration has been strengthened, with the State Council concluding more than 13,000 administrative reconsideration cases and local governments and their departments concluding more than 705,000 cases. Government information disclosure has made remarkable progress in terms of quantity and quality. Chinese citizens’ right to information has been guaranteed more systematically and circumspectly. Law-based administration, where unbridled power is put under the control of systems, has become the distinctive feature of the new era.

Fourth, judicial fairness has been maintained. Without justice, there is no rule of law. Judiciary is the firm defender and guardian of fairness and justice. China has advanced its judicial reform since the 18th National Congress and made remarkable achievements in promoting judicial fairness. Reform of the trial-centered criminal procedure system has effectively prevented misjudgments, and reform of the judicial accountability system has ensured that those who hear the case make the judgement and those who judge are held accountable. Over 50 major misjudged cases have been redressed. They include the case of Hugjiltu (a teenager who was accused of the rape and murder of a woman in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and executed in 1996. However, a serial killer arrested in 2005 for nine murders confessed to killing the woman Hugjiltu was accused of murdering and the teen's case was reopened); the Nie Shubin case (in which Nie Shubin was executed on the charge of raping and murdering a woman in Hebei Province in 1995. He was exonerated 21 years later after another man confessed to the crime); and the case of Chen Man (who received a suspended death sentence over the death of a woman in Hainan Province in 1994 but was released after 21 years when a court ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict him.)

In addition, circuit courts of the Supreme People's Court have been set up to hear cross-regional administrative, civil, and commercial cases, a specialized intellectual property judicial system is being established, and pilot reform of the trans-regional courts in Beijing and Shanghai has been launched. Financial courts and internet courts have been established and the configuration of judicial functions and powers has been optimized to prevent local powers from interfering in judicial activities. Reform of the registration system to facilitate filing cases is progressing steadily, with over 95 percent complaints nationwide filed by the time they are received. China has established a personnel quota system to control the proportions of judges and prosecutors among all judicial staff, and more than 120,000 judges and 90,000 prosecutors were reselected for their posts. Reform of the lawyer system today better protects the legal rights of implicated parties. The system of re-education through labor, which prevailed for more than half a century, has been scrapped.

Fifth, it has been ensured that everyone abides by the law. A law without authority is not a real law, nor can it take effect. The authority of law comes from people's faith in it, respect for it, and defense of it. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, public awareness of the socialist rule of law has been heightened and a public communication program, in which the law enforcement departments are responsible for strengthening public legal awareness, has been widely implemented. The Outline of the Law-Related Education for Juveniles has been issued, and Party committees and Party leadership groups must learn the Constitution and the laws in their group study meetings.

By the end of May 2019, there were 4.2 million legal service providers and 853,000 legal service agencies. Nearly 3,000 county-level public legal service centers and 40,000 town (subdistrict) public legal service stations have been built, covering 99.97 percent of all counties and 98.29 percent of all towns (subdistricts). Legal advisors serve 650,000 villagers (neighborhood) committees, which means 99.9 percent of the villages in China have been covered. The number of homicides per 100,000 people in China is the lowest in the world. Public security reform and traffic management reform have benefited more than 800 million people. There is 95.55 percent public satisfaction with security. By the end of April 2020, 3,120 underworld organizations and 9,888 criminal gangs had been busted; 388,442 suspects were detained; and 67,190 people were investigated and punished for corruption and protecting criminals in underworld and gang crimes. These achievements highlight the power of China's law-based society and reflect the steady step of a country of 1.4 billion people towards a new stage of the rule of law.

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(1)Xi Jinping: “Speech at the Second Full Assembly of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee” (October 23, 2014), The Law-Based Governance of China, compiled by Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, Chin. ed., Central Party Literature Press, 2015, p. 12.