There is ample evidence to indicate that China has made significant gains in developing rule of law since 1978. Many Chinese and foreign observers point to major improvements to administrative law, as well as the development of a more comprehensive legal code to meet longstanding as well as emergent needs. Along the way, numerous well-known achievements have been made in economic and social development. But have these changes occurred come from aspirations of revolution or reform?

While it is common to associate Mao with revolution and Deng with reform, it is clear that the reform and opening-up period was manifestly revolutionary in its thinking, processes and results. In the late 1990s, when the principle of advancing the rule of law became an explicit goal and was enshrined in the Constitution, it was clear that authorities were ready to trade revolution for reform. Unfortunately, during the 10 years that followed, when the Party struggled to resolve political differences within itself between competing visions for progress, a high degree of gridlock ensued, reforms were stymied, various policies' needs were unmet, corruption worsened, and a vicious cycle ensued.

This was the situation encountered by Xi Jinping and the fifth generation of leadership, which took and consolidated power rapidly following the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. In fact, transfer and consolidation took place so quickly and was followed in turn by a major Party rectification and anti-corruption drive—one that was absolutely unprecedented in terms of scope and depth during the reform and opening-up period. The fact that this drive was initiated in part by a return to concepts and practices that originated under Mao, for example, the new Mass Line Campaign. At the same time, however, the mechanisms established to push through reforms have not been idle. A number of major reforms have been pushed through since the 18th CPC National Congress, and currently, with the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the Party has indicated its commitment to reforms aimed at advancing the rule of law, including, for example, incremental changes designed to improve transparency and judicial independence.

In one sense, the Party's dramatic anti-corruption and rectifications drives, its new leadership style and culture, combined with its advancing reform agenda, seem to indicate that the Party has been searching in part for the right combination of reform and revolution as it advances along the path of socialist construction. One possibility is that the Party might try to retain its revolutionary culture in the Party apparatus but in some way whittle these down to accommodate the model of reform via its control of the state apparatus.

In the well-known, and thoroughly debated, 1948 essay titled On What There Is, the logician W.V.O. Quine argued that every system of logic is based on assumptions, and that these in turn will always be confirmed by the logic that they produced.

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