Rule of law is an essential task for China (Part I)
- By Dong Yawei
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 21, 2014
The incumbent Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is holding its fourth plenary session on Oct. 20 - 23 in Beijing. The session will discuss how to push forward the significant issues such as the rule of law.
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Dong Yawei [File photo] |
The fact that the Party authorities chose the rule of law as the theme of the meeting indicates that as the ruling party in China, the CPC will pay more attention to legislation building and the rule of law. The issue of a socialist country under the rule of law is not just about improving the socialist legal and justice system and rule by law, but also definition of the positions for the Party and the people in such a nation.
China.org.cn recently invited Dong Yawei, the deputy director of the Political Party Teaching and Researching Office of the Party Building Department, Party School of the CPC Central Committee, to interpret significant issues such as pushing forward the rule of law. His main points will be presented in a two-part series. The following is the first part:
China.org.cn: The major agenda of the Fourth Plenary Session is working on how to push forward the rule of law. Why would the session choose this subject in particular for discussion?
Dong: As early as in 1997, the CPC proposed the strategy of rule of law at its 15th National Congress. It was raised from the perspective of the modern country ruling system and our Party and country's leadership system, as well as the whole society.
China has made huge achievements in every aspect. But it is undeniable that we also have many problems. China's social order has not been regulated well enough. There are views that in China the government makes laws, but wildly breaks laws and selectively enforces the laws," while officials have more rights beyond the law, and the general public trust in appealing to a higher level of government rather than appealing to the court. It is commonly believed that when injustices happen, "things will be difficult to deal with when you make a small noise, but if you make things big, the quick solution will come." This creates a vicious circle.
We can see from this that whether it is at the level of the government or of officials and the public, the concept of law is almost nonexistent. The loss of order has caused many problems for China, especially mass protests which have occurred many times in recent years.
The new leadership, especially General Secretary Xi Jinping, is paying attention to this phenomenon. Xi is looking at the problem from the modern country administration perspective. On Sept. 17, 2014, Xi talked about the modern country administration system and the governing capability with provincial and ministerial officials. He also set a goal of achieving the anticipated achievements by 2020 related to institutionalization of governance systems and rule of law.
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