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ОглавлениеChapter 2
The Background and Major Tasks of Comprehensively Advancing the Law-Based Governance of China
“In comprehensively advancing the law-based governance of the country, we must implement the guiding principles of the 18th National Congress and the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee; hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics; take as our guide Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development; and thoroughly implement the guiding principles from major speeches by Xi Jinping. We must remain committed to integrating leadership by the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country; keep resolutely to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; remain dedicated to upholding the authority of the Constitution and other laws; protect the rights and interests of the people, social equity and justice, and national security and stability in accordance with the law; and thus, through the rule of law, provide a powerful guarantee for achieving the Two Centenary Goals and realizing the Chinese Dream of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The overall objective of our efforts to comprehensively advance the law-based governance of the country is to develop a socialist rule-of-law system with Chinese characteristics and a socialist rule-of-law country. This means that under the CPC’s leadership, we need to uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics; put into practices the theory of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; form a complete system of laws, a highly effective system to put into effect the rule of law, a stringent system to oversee the rule of law being put into effect, and a robust system to guarantee the rule of law; put in place a well-defined system of Party regulations; make coordinated efforts to simultaneously develop the law-based governance of the country, the law-based exercise of state power, and the law-based administration of government; adopt a holistic approach to the development of a rule-of-law country, a rule-of-law government, and a rule-of-law society; ensure that a well-conceived approach is taken to legislation, that law is enforced strictly, that justice is administered impartially, and that the law is observed by everyone; and modernize our country’s governance system and capacity for governance”.
—Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Certain Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-Based Governance of China, adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.
1.The Historical Development from “Law-Based Governance of the Country” to “Comprehensively Advancing Law-Based Governance of the Country”
The Resolution passed by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee articulates for the first time the CPC’s action program of law-based exercise of state power comprehensively and systematically in the form of the Party’s documents. The Resolution centers on the theme of comprehensively advancing law-based governance of the country and also proposes in detail the guiding thought, overall objective, basic principles, and specific tasks in fulfilling the theme. It establishes in a scientific way a complete theory system of comprehensively advancing law-based governance of the country, puts forward the requirements for the institutional development of the socialist rule-of-law system with Chinese characteristics, and ushers in a new era of rule-of-law construction in China.
The formation of the theory system and action plan of comprehensively promoting law-based governance of the country by the ruling party has gone through a comparatively long period of historical understanding and development and can obviously be divided into two stages: The first stage recognizes the position and importance of legal construction in developing a modernized socialism; the second stage experiences a shift from the establishment of the basic policy of law-based governance of the country to systemic theories and plans of comprehensively promoting law-based governance of the country. In 1997, the 15th CPC National People’s Congress put forward the national policy of “law-based governance of the country and building a socialist country under the rule of law”. Since then, the socialist legal construction has been developing rapidly. By the end of 2010, China had basically established the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics as scheduled by 15th CPC National People’s Congress. More importantly, it had completed the theoretical construction of comprehensively advancing law-based governance of the country based on the 17 years of practice of socialist legal construction from the 15th CPC National People’s Congress to the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee: More than 180 reform proposals on the rule of law have been put forward in view of China’s realities. All of this shows a clear direction ahead for the development of China under the rule of law. The significance of the historic development will be given full play as the resolution is implemented progressively.
1.1.Legal System is the Important Connotation of the Socialist System
In the long-term practice of leading the Chinese people in revolution, social construction, and reform, the CPC has closely integrated the universal principles of Marxism with China’s national conditions and concrete practices to explore how to seize power from the Kuomintang in an economically backward agricultural country and transform the revolutionary party to the ruling party when coming into power. Under the leadership of the CPC, it’s the people who manage the state and social affairs and economic and cultural undertakings, and it’s ensured that the people are masters of the country. After long-term arduous exploration and practice, the CPC has led the people to establish law-based governance of the country as the basic policy for governing the country. The basic policy is the choice of the people and a natural result in accord with the requirement of the times.
Marxism believes that the first step in the revolution of the working class is to win democracy, control state power, and elevate ourselves to the ruling class. After its establishment in 1921, the CPC took leading the people to “win democracy” and create “a new legal system” as an important revolutionary goal and historic mission in the New Democratic Revolution and found the revolutionary path of waging the armed seizure of power through surrounding the city by the countryside.
The Party’s first generation of central collective leadership with Mao Zedong as the core led the Party to fight bravely for 28 years and eventually found the People’s Republic of China, which has laid a political foundation for the building of a socialist legal system. The CPC led the people and consolidated the new political power by ensuring the smooth progress of socialist revolution and development and by setting about establishing a socialist legal system quickly, opening up a new era of China’s rule of law. In the early years of the New China, the Party paid much attention to the legal construction and worked hard to build a lawbased country. Laws and regulations were formulated soon to solve the problem that no law could be resorted to.
In 1954, the first Constitution of New China was promulgated and implemented immediately as the fundamental law of China, which confirmed the achievements of the people’s revolution. The Constitution stipulated the basic system and tasks of the country and provided a fundamental legal basis and constitutional protection for the consolidation of the people’s democratic government and the building of New China.
In 1956, the work report at the Party’s Eighth National People’s Congress pointed out: “As the period of revolutionary storms has passed and new relations of production have been put in place, the task of our fight has shifted to ensuring the development of social productivity. Thus, the methods of the socialist revolution have to make a change. A complete legal system is absolutely necessary”. “One of our urgent tasks in our country’s work is to systematically formulate relatively complete laws and improve our country’s legal system”. To this end, we must “have laws to observe and abide by laws”, and “more importantly strengthen the Party’s leadership over the legal system. The Party committees at all levels must put the issue of legal system on the agenda, and conduct regular discussions and reviews about it”.1
After 1958, however, due to the mistakes in the guiding thought of the Party and the country, Mao Zedong’s view of the legal system made a major change. He did not believe that civil and criminal laws could be used to maintain order and that the country should be governed by the people, but just by the law, and the law could only serve as a reference for work.2
The Party’s second-generation central collective leadership with Deng Xiaoping as the core profoundly reviewed China’s historical experiences and lessons, and made the strategic decision to shift the focus of the Party and the state’s work from the class conflict as the guideline to economic development at the center and reform and opening-up. The major shift led to the restoration, reconstruction, and development of the rule of law and created a new era of China’s rule of law. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee made it clear: “Rule of law must be strengthened and democracy must be institutionalized and codified in order to guarantee people’s democracy, and ensure such a system and laws are consistent, continuous and authoritative. All this will ensure that there are laws to go by, that they are observed and strictly enforced, and that violators are brought to book”. Thereafter, China established the basic principles for the development of socialist democracy and the improvement of the socialist legal system in modernization. In 1979, the CPC Central Committee issued the Directive on Resolutely Ensuring the Effective Implementation of the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, which emphasized whether the seven laws, including the Criminal Procedure Law, can be strictly enforced was an important indicator of whether China was implementing the socialist rule of law. It is the first time that the concept of “rule of law” was officially used in important state documents. The 1982 Constitution held high the banner of socialist democracy and the rule of law. It further emphasized in the preamble that the people of all ethnic groups across the country, all state organs and armed forces, political parties and social organizations, and enterprises and institutions must take the Constitution as the fundamental principle of their activities and shoulder the responsibility for maintaining the dignity of the Constitution and guaranteeing its implementation. As Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “we will continue to develop socialist democracy and improve the socialist legal system. This has been the unyielding basic principle of the Central Committee since the Third Plenary Session. We will never allow any wavering of it in the future”.
2.The Establishment of the Basic Policy of Law-Based Governance of the Country Completely Eliminates the Institutional Impediment to the Healthy Development of Chinese Society
After the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee, the Party’s third-generation central collective leadership with Jiang Zemin as the core, on the basis of further advancing and deepening the great cause of reform and opening-up, clearly put forward the goal of reform: establishing a socialist market economy system. Aiming at this, China also proposed to set up the legal system under socialist market economy and adhered to and implemented the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country, creating a new phase of China’s development in the rule of law.
With the Resolution on the establishment of a socialist market economy system at the 14th CPC National People’s Congress in 1992, China greatly accelerated its pace in the reform of the economic system and achieved remarkable results on many measures for establishing a socialist market economy system. However, due to the relative hysteresis of legislation, many laws in China served the planned economy at that time. If China emphasized indiscriminately that “there were laws to abide by, the laws must be observed, the laws must be strictly enforced, and those in violation of law must be held liable”, the more stringent implementation of laws serving the planned economy, the greater resistance these laws would produce to the establishment of a socialist market economy system. Therefore, the proposition that “market economy is the economy under rule of law” came into being. With the gradual establishment of China’s socialist market economy system, the continuous development of socialist democracy and the rule of law, and the continuous construction of the socialist spiritual civilization, Jiang Zemin further emphasized the importance of strengthening the legal construction in his speech at the legal system seminar of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in February 1996. He pointed out that strengthening the construction of China’s socialist legal system and the law-based governance of the country was an important part of Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and an important guideline for the Party and the government in managing the state and social affairs.3 Then the concept of the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country was officially put forward.
In March 1996, the Ninth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and 2010 Program of Perspective Goals, a legally valid national document, formulated by the Fourth Session of the Eighth Standing Committee of the NPC, confirmed the law-based governance of the country and building the country under a socialist legal system and clearly stated that the major task of the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country was strengthening legislation, judiciary, law enforcement, and law publicity; upholding the close integration of reform, development, and the construction of legal system; further formulating and implementing laws and regulations which were adapted to economic and social development; strengthening and improving judiciary, administrative law enforcement, and the oversight over law enforcement; resolutely rectifying the mistakes that the available laws were not observed, the enforcement of laws was not strict, violations of laws were not investigated, and the power was abused.
In September 1997, the work report by the 15th National Congress of the CPC established for the first time the law-based governance of the country as the basic policy for the Party to lead the people in governing the country, changed “building the country under a socialist legal system” to “building a socialist country under the rule of law”, and made a specific definition of the scientific connotation of the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country: “the rule of law means that under the leadership of the Party, the people manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and the society through various channels and forms in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and other laws and ensure that all national tasks are carried out in accordance with the law and gradually make socialist democracy institutionalized through standards and procedures, so that these system and laws do not change with the change in leadership and the change of leaders’ opinions and attention”.
In March 1999, the Second Session of the Ninth National People’s Congress adopted the Amendment to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, enshrined the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country in the general outline of the Constitution, and clearly stipulated that “the People’s Republic of China rules the country in accordance with the law and builds a socialist country under the rule of law”, so that the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country was established in the form of a national basic law and became a basic principle of the Constitution.
The official establishment and full implementation of the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country signify that the Party has transformed from a revolutionary Party that exercises leadership mainly depending on mass movements and political methods to a ruling one that implements law-based governance, constitution-based exercise of state power, and law-based exercise of state power, which is of historic significance, and marks that China’s basic policy of governing the country has achieved a historic leap from the “rule of man” to the “legal system” and then from the “legal system” to the “rule of law”; and indicates that the political status and democratic right of “determining their own destiny” of the people are fully affirmed by the socialist rule of law and the fundamental interests of the people of all ethnic groups have been effectively guaranteed by the Constitution and other laws.
The Report of the 15th National People’s Congress of the CPC stipulated that the law-based governance of the country was the basic policy for the Party to lead the people in governing the country. Since then, after the 17-year development, this basic policy has achieved remarkable results in various aspects, such as law-based exercise of state power, democratic legislation, law-based administration, impartial judicial administration, legal supervision, legal system publicity, legal services, and legal governance, and has largely demonstrated the rationality of the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country and the vitality of the socialist rule of law.
3.The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC Timely Put Forward the General Guide of Law-Based Governance of the Country with Comprehensive Advancement of the Rule of Law as the Core
The 18th National Congress of the CPC proposed that the rule of law is the basic way to govern the country. We should speed up the construction of the socialist country under the rule of law and fully develop the law-based governance of the country. By 2020, the law-based governance of the country should be fully implemented as a basic policy, a law-based government should be basically in function, judicial credibility should be steadily enhanced, and human rights should be fully respected and protected. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee further proposed that to build a China under the rule of law, we should adhere to the coordinated advancement of law-based governance, law-based exercise of state power, law-based government administration, and the integrated development of rule of law for the country, the government, and society. The full implementation of these arrangements and requirements relates to the expedite construction of the country under a socialist legal system, the implementation of the top-level design of comprehensively deepening the reform, and the long-term development of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Since the 18th National People’s Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to the law-based governance of the country. It emphasized that in order to implement the basic policy of the law-based governance of the country and accelerate the construction of the country under a socialist legal system, we must ensure that “our legislation is sound, law enforcement is strict, the administration of justice is impartial, and the law is observed by everyone”. It also emphasized that we should uphold the Party’s leadership and pay more attention to “improving the means the Party exercises leadership and governance”; “the essence of the rule of law is governing the country according to the Constitution; the Constitution-based exercise of state power is the key of law-based exercise of state power. Under the new situation, in order to fulfill the important responsibility of governing and rejuvenating the country, the Party must strengthen self-governance in every respect according to the Party Constitution. The Party leads the people to formulate and implement the Constitution and other laws, so the Party itself must act within the scope of the Constitution and other laws and truly leads the legislation, guarantees law enforcement, and takes the lead in observing the law”.
In order to speed up the socialist construction of the rule of law, the Party made a comprehensive and systematic review of the experience and lessons of China’s legal system over the past 65 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially of new knowledge the ruling party has acquired on law-based exercise of state power and law-based governance since the 15th CPC Central Committee proposing the law-base governance of the country and a socialist country under the rule of law. Based on this, the Party comprehensively and systematically proposed the theoretical system and program of action for the Party practicing law-based exercise of state power. After the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, China began to study and consider the issues of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The 18th National Congress of the CPC proposed the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made a top-level design for comprehensively deepening the reform. To achieve this objective and implement this top-level design, China had to provide reliable protection from the perspective of the rule of law.
Since the 18th National People’s Congress of the CPC, the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects had entered a critical stage, and the reform in China had entered a period of cracking hard-nut problems and the deep-water zone. The ruling party had unprecedented priority to reform, develop, and stabilize the country and faced unprecedented contradictions, risks, and challenges, too. Law-based governance of the country became even more prominent in the work of the Party and the government, and its role was more significant. Strengthening law-based governance of the country is a major strategic issue. It concerns the ruling party’s governance and the rejuvenation of the country, the happiness and well-being of the people, and the enduring peace and stability of the Party and the country. It is an important aspect on improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing the modernization of national governance systems and governance capacity. China must make overall arrangements, take practical measures, and take actions in strengthening law-based governance of the country, in order to achieve a series of strategic arrangements made by the 18th CPC National People’s Congress and the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, realize the Chinese nation’s great rejuvenation and comprehensively deepen reforms, and improve and develop the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Based on the above considerations, in January 2014, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee decided that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee would focus on strengthening law-base governance of the country and making a resolution. To this end, a document drafting group was established led by Xi Jinping (the director), Zhang Dejiang (the deputy director), and Wang Qishan (the deputy director) and consisted of leaders from relevant departments and leaders from two provinces. They were responsible for drawing up documents under the leadership of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee. A working group was set up under the drafting group4 to assist them in collecting and collating all the information they needed. The working group must thoroughly and effectively look into problems in practice and propose ideas and draw up drafts, which served as a reference for the drafting group.
On January 27, the Party Central Committee issued the Notice for Advice on Advancing Law-based Governance of the Country on the Forth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. On February 12, the drafting group held its first plenary meeting and the drafting of the document was formally initiated. From February 18 to 25, the group, divided into eight research groups and travelled to 14 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities for research. From the group’s in-depth observation and feedback from all parties, the surveyed units unanimously believed that it was significant and far-reaching for the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee to discuss strengthening law-base governance of the country and making a resolution. It was consistent with the development of the Party and the country and the hope of the Party and the people of all ethnic groups in the country. It was generally hoped that this resolution would clearly and comprehensively advance the guiding thought and general requirements for strengthening the law-based governance of the country and profoundly clarify the relationship between the Party’s leadership and law-based governance of the country, and other important theoretical and practical issues in the construction of the rule of law. Effective actions must be taken for prominent issues in the rule of law that the people had strong concern about, and top-level design shall be made for the construction of a socialist country of the rule of law.
During more than 8 months after the establishment of the drafting group, the group members conducted in-depth investigations and studies, extensively solicited opinions, carried out special arguments, and repeatedly discussed amendments. The Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee held four meetings and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held two meetings to review the resolutions of the plenary session. At the beginning of August, a Draft Resolution was handed out for opinions within the confine of the Party. It solicited opinions from the Party’s senior comrades, the central authorities of democratic parties, the leaders of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and patriots without party affiliations. A total of 3,326 people voiced their opinions, comments, and suggestions on the Draft Resolution.
According to the feedback for the Draft Resolution, all parties agreed that the Resolution to be passed in the meeting would face up to the principal issues in the construction of the rule of law in China. Based on the reality of China’s socialist construction of the rule of law, the Resolution should clearly put forward the guiding thought, overall objective, and basic principles for advancing law-based governance of the country and set forth a series of new viewpoints and new measures. It should answer a series of major theoretical and practical issues such as the relationship between the Party’s leadership and law-based governance of the country. A full deployment would be made concerning well-conceived legislation, strict law enforcement, impartial justice, law observance by all, the building of a team for enforcing the rule of law, and strengthening and improving the party’s leadership in the advancement of the law-based governance of the country. It should make targeted response to the people’s voices and social concerns. The forthcoming Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee must uphold the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, build a Chinese-style socialist system of the rule of law, and clearly define the nature, direction, path, and entry point of building a socialist country under the rule of law. All parties agreed that it would surely promote the construction of a socialist rule-of-law country.
In the process of soliciting opinions, all parties put forward lots of good opinions and suggestions. The Central Committee required the drafting group to seriously sort out and study them. The group made important modifications on the Resolution. On September 30, the revised Resolution was submitted to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee for consideration. The Bureau believed that it was basically mature and decided to submit it to the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee for deliberation. During the meeting, under the auspices of Xi Jinping, the drafting group made multiple modifications to it according to the opinions of the attendees again. At 3 pm on October 23, the newborn Draft Resolution was placed before every member and alternate member of the Central Committee. The Resolution integrating the wisdom of the Party, the army, and the people of all ethnic groups in the country was unanimously adopted. At 6 pm on October 28, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC on Certain Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-based Governance of China was formally announced to the public. Since then, the first systemic party document on comprehensively advancing law-based governance of the country was officially published after 251 days and nights’ diligent work, gathering the wisdom of the Party and consulting all sectors of society.
4.Guiding Thoughts and Basic Principles of Comprehensively Advancing Law-based Governance of the Country
In drafting work, about advancing law-based governance of the country, Xi Jinping made very clear instructions on the drafting ideas, guiding thought, and basic characteristics. It involves many major theoretical and practical issues. Many of these issues are also new topics for China. Whether scientific answers can be made to these major issues theoretically and practically is the key to the success of the drafting work. It’s a must in drafting to apply the basic principles of Marxism, the standpoints of the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the major principles and policies proposed by the Party Central Committee since the 18th CPC National Congress. We should sum up the experience of socialist construction of the rule of law, draw on the essence of Chinese codified culture, and learn from the useful achievements of the rule of law in other countries. We should work hard to thoroughly understand and clearly clarify the major issues of the Draft Resolution, so that it could pass its test.
Xi Jinping gave a detailed introduction and explanation on how to determine the general direction in the Explanation on the Draft Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC on Certain Major Issues concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-based Governance of China (the Explanation for short). Xi said that the Political Bureau of the Central Committee believes that comprehensively advancing the rule of law involves aspects including the stability of reform and development, the Party’s governance, the nation, and the army, as well as domestic affairs, diplomacy, and national defense. We must view the plan in an overall and long-term manner. The Fourth Plenary Session decided that the Party should defend our political position and seek answers to major theoretical and practical questions on the construction of the rule of law. First, we should fully affirm the achievements and experiences of China’s socialist construction of the rule of law and generate new ideas and measures aiming at realistic issues. Second, we should uphold the key of the construction of the rule of law and reflect the overall requirements for the development of the Party and the nation’s undertakings. Third, we should improve the top design while looking at the bigger picture and improve the practical function while having our feet firmly on the ground. Fourth, we should pay attention to not only the immediate results but also the long-term effects.
Xi also explained that the Draft Resolution considered five main aspects when drafting the Resolution. First, the Resolution should embody the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the CPC and the Third Plenary Session and reflect the work planning of the Party Central Committee since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. It should show the logical connections of the Three-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy, namely building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, comprehensively deepening reform, and comprehensively advancing the rule of law. Second, the Resolution should focus on the overall layout of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics so as to meet the requirements of the rule of law for all areas on promoting the reform and development, rather than improving the rule of law for the sake of the rule of law. Third, the Resolution should reflect the current basic operating structure of the rule of law, implementing the process from legislation, law enforcement, judicial justice, and law observance. Fourth, the Resolution should uphold the reform direction and be problem-orientated. It should adapt to the requirements for advancing the modernization of the country’s governance system and capacity for governance, face the serious issues in the construction of the rule of law, respond to the expectations of the people, and strive to put forward reform measures that are of great significance in the rule of law. Fifth, the Resolution should work under China’s conditions and reality and uphold the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. It should keep pace with the times and reflect the spirit of the times and not copy the models of other countries.
Above all, according to its initial conception, the Resolution already constructed clear guidelines and established important principles of comprehensively advancing the rule of law, which guaranteed that the Resolution can accurately grasp the actual requirements and development direction of China’s socialist construction of the rule of law.
5.The Resolution Puts Forward the Guideline of Comprehensively Advancing the Rule of Law
The Resolution points out that in comprehensively promoting the rule of law, we should do the following: implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress and the Third Plenary Session of the CPC; hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics; take as our guide Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development; and thoroughly implement the guiding principles from major speeches by Xi Jinping. We must remain committed to integrating leadership by the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country; keep resolutely to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; remain dedicated to upholding the authority of the Constitution and other laws; protect the rights and interests of the people, social equity and justice, and national security and stability in accordance with the law, provide a powerful guarantee for achieving the Two Centenary Goals, and realize the Chinese Dream of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
It is worth noting that compared with the guideline of comprehensively deepening the reform put forward by the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform (the Decision for short) passed by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the Fourth Plenary Session made further progress in improving the guideline of comprehensively advancing the rule of law, which has the feature of keeping pace with the times. The Decision points out that in order to comprehensively deepen the reform, we must do the following: hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics; take as our guide Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development. We must strengthen confidence and reach consensus; coordinate planning and promote cooperation; adhere to the reform direction of the socialist market economy; promote social fairness and justice and enhance the well-being of the people as the goal and result; further liberate the mind, release and develop social productivity, further emancipate the mind, liberate and develop social productive force, release and increase social vitality; resolutely eliminate the drawbacks of the systems and mechanisms; and work hard to open up a broader perspective of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Based on the above discussion, the guideline for comprehensively deepening the reform is expressed as: take as our guide Marxism– Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, whereas the guideline for comprehensively promoting the rule of law passed by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th National Congress of the CPC is stated as: take as our guide Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development and thoroughly implement the guiding principles from major speeches by Xi Jinping. Obviously, “thoroughly implementing the guiding principles from major speeches by Xi Jinping” has added to the guideline of promoting the rule of law, which has the significance of guiding the overall advancement of the rule of law.
6.The Resolution Established Five Basic Principles of Comprehensively Advancing the Rule of Law
The way of how to achieve the overall objective of comprehensively advancing the rule of law was an important issue that had been discussed by the drafting group at the very beginning. The drafting group always believed that we must adhere to the most basic principles to promote the rule of law; otherwise, we would deviate from the correct track of the socialist construction of the rule of law. To this end, the Resolution identified five basic principles.
1.Uphold the leadership of the CPC. The leadership of the CPC is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and is the most fundamental guarantee for socialist rule of law in China. The need to exercise the Party’s leadership throughout the whole process and in every aspect of the law-based governance of the country is a basic lesson we have learned in developing socialist rule of law in China. The position of leadership of the CPC is written into China’s Constitution. Upholding the Party’s leadership is fundamental to socialist rule of law: it is the foundation and lifeblood of both the Party and the country, affects the interests and well-being of the people of all China’s ethnic groups, and is integral to China’s efforts to comprehensively advance the law-based governance of the country. The Party’s leadership is consistent with the socialist rule of law: socialist rule of law must uphold the leadership of the Party, and the leadership of the Party must rely on the socialist rule of law. Only through the law-based governance of China and the rule of law under the Party’s leadership, can the people fully act as masters of the country, and the level of the rule of law can be steadily increased in affairs of the country and the lives of the people. To achieve the law-based exercise of state power, the Party not only has to exercise governance of the country in accordance with the Constitution and other laws but also has to ensure that its own self-governance is in line with Party regulations. The Party must lead legislation, ensure law enforcement, support the administration of justice, and lead the way in abiding by the law; integrate the basic policy of law-based governance and the basic practice of law-based exercise of state power; not only exercise overall leadership but also coordinate everyone’s efforts so as to ensure that people’s congresses, governments, committees of the CPPCC, courts, and procuratorates all perform their duties and carry out their work in accordance with the law and regulations; ensure that it not only leads the people in enacting and enforcing the Constitution and the laws but also operates within the confines of the Constitution and the laws itself; and be adept at helping its propositions become the will of the country through statutory procedures, guiding the candidates it backs to become leaders of organs of state power through these procedures, exercising leadership over the state and society through these organs, and using the principle of democratic centralism to safeguard the authority of the Central Committee and uphold the unity of the whole Party and the entire country.
2.Uphold the people’s principal position in the country. The people are the actors who provide the source of strength for the law-based governance of the country, and the system of people’s congresses is the fundamental political system that guarantees the people’s position as masters of the country. We must develop rule of law for the people and to benefit and protect them. In doing this, we must rely on them; take safeguarding their fundamental rights and interests as the starting point and the ultimate goal; ensure that, in accordance with the law, they both enjoy extensive rights and freedoms and perform their duties; uphold social equity and justice; and bring prosperity to all. We must ensure that the people can, under the Party’s leadership and in accordance with the law, participate in different ways through various channels in managing state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings, and social matters. We must get the people to understand that the law is both a powerful weapon that they can use to safeguard their rights and a code of conduct that they must abide by and strengthen the awareness of all members of society of the need to study, respect, abide by, and apply the law, so that they better understand, observe, and employ the law.
3.Ensure that everyone is equal before the law. Equality is a basic attribute of socialist law. All organizations and individuals must respect the authority of the Constitution and other laws; confine their activities to the areas prescribed by them; and exercise powers, enjoy rights, and perform duties and obligations in accordance with them. No organization or individual is above the Constitution or any other law. We must safeguard the unity, sanctity, and authority of the country’s legal system, ensure the Constitution and all other laws are effectively enforced, and under no circumstances allow any individual, under any pretext or in any way, to override the law through arbitrary fiats of their own making, place their power above the authority of the law, or bend the law for personal gain. With a focus on regulating and constraining the exercise of public power, we must strengthen oversight; ensure that with power comes responsibility, that the exercise of power is subject to oversight, and that violations of the law are punished; and resolutely put an end to laws being ignored, or not being strictly enforced, and breaches of law going uninvestigated.
4.Combine rule of law with rule of virtue. The governance of the country and society requires that law and virtue play a joint role. We must apply both the rule of law and the rule of virtue, energetically promote the core socialist values, foster traditional Chinese virtues, and cultivate social morality, professional ethics, family values, and the moral integrity of individuals. We must work hard to ensure that law functions as the standard for behavior and that behavior is inspired by virtue. We must ensure that the rule of law gives expression to virtues and that law better promotes the development of civic morality, while nurturing the rule of law through virtue and strengthening the role morality can play in bolstering a rule-of-law culture, thus ensuring that law and virtue each promote and enhance one another and rule of law and rule of virtue complement each other.
5.Base our work on the actual situation in China. The path, theories, and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics are fundamentals we must follow in comprehensively advancing the law-based governance of the country. Based on the reality of the Chinese context and in order to keep up with the deepening of reform and opening-up, we must make innovations in the theory of rule of law by reviewing and learning from the Party’s successful experiences of leading the people in implementing the rule of law and by focusing on major theoretical and practical issues concerning the development of socialist rule of law, so as to develop a theory of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics that is compatible with the actual situation in China and embodies the natural laws of social development and thus gain theoretical guidance and support in advancing the law-based governance of China. We will draw on what is good about traditional Chinese legal culture and learn from those practices of other countries that are useful in developing the rule of law, but we will never indiscriminately copy foreign ideas about or models of rule of law.
The Resolution points out that the comprehensive advancement of law-based governance of China is a systemic endeavor and a broad and far-reaching revolution in the governance of the country. It will demand long-term hard work. All Party members must uphold the law-based governance of the country with a greater sense of purpose and work more solidly to advance law-based governance, striving to increase the level of rule of law in all the work of the country and to keep moving forward in building China into a rule-of-law country.
