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9Han Yanlong. (1998). General History of the Legal System of the People’s Republic of China (Volume 2) (pp. 794–795). Beijing: The CPC Central Committee Party School Press.
10China Law Society. (1987). Law Yearbook of China (p. 522). Beijing: Law Press of China.
11Chen Pixian. (1985). Reports of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.
12Peng Chong. (1993). Report of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.
13The Party Literature Research Office of the Central Committee of the CPC. (1998). The Chronicle of Deng Xiaoping Thought (p. 122). Beijing: CPC Central Committee Press.
14Information Office of the State Council. (2008). White Paper on Building China’s Rule of Law.
15According to the latest statistics, as of February 2017, China has enacted 257 effective laws, more than 750 administrative regulations, over 10,100 local laws and regulations, over 2,700 departmental rules and regulations, and about 9,100 local government regulations. The Supreme Court and the highest Procuratorate have promulgated more than 3,000 judicial interpretations and documents functioning as judicial interpretations.
Chapter 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
