The Chinese Road of the Rule of Law

The Decision of the CPC Central Committee concerning Several Major Issues in Comprehensively Advancing Governance by Law, adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Decision), has for the first time in history made an overall strategic arrangement in the form of the highest-level political document of the ruling party for the construction of the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and a socialist state under the rule of law, for promoting and safeguarding the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, for modernizing the system and capacity of state governance, and for deepening in an all-round way various reforms under new situation by comprehensively advancing governance by law and strengthening the construction of the rule of law, thereby providing important institutional and legal safeguards for building China into a moderately well-off society in an all-round way and for realizing the Chinese dream of rejuvenating the Chinese nation. The Decision expounds the CPC’s political idea and strategic thinking of ruling the country by law and draws a grand blueprint of construction of socialist state under the rule of law. As a programmatic document on comprehensive advancement of ruling the country by law, it is of profound realistic and historical significance.

The socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics was established through the total destruction of the old legal system of the Kuomintang Regime and the adoption of the Soviet mode of socialist legal system in accordance with the Marxist theory of state and law and in light of the action situation of the New-Democratic Revolution in China. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the construction of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics has undergone two stages of development—which can be further divided into six periods—along with the tortuous political, economic, social and cultural developments in China.

The advancement of the rule of law and the construction of a state under the rule of law can be realized only through a series of methods and approaches, including values established by law, institutions designed by law, conducts regulated by law, and orders constructed by law. Therefore, having laws to go by and having good laws and good governance are the basic precondition of implementing the rule of law, as well as the basic requirement of bringing social values under the rule of law in China. The legal system refers to the totality of all legal norms in a country. It embodies in a concentrated way the systematization and integration of the principle of “having laws to go by” and an advanced legal form of construction a harmonious society by means of the entirety of all the current legal norms in a country. In China, the formation of the legal system with Chinese characteristics is an important precondition of and a basic legal safeguard for comprehensive advancement of ruling the country by law and the construction of a country under the rule of law.

One of the important reasons for the significant development of the rule of law and the legal research in China since the reform and opening up in 1978 is the rapid popularization and extensive application of comparative law. The application of such methods of comparative law as “seeking commonness among differences” and “seeking differences among commonness”, whether in the fields of legislation, law enforcement, administrative of justice or legal supervision, has provided China with broader vision, deeper understanding, more choices and more effective reference in the construction of the rule of law and legal research, and given it wings for the take-off of the modernization of the legal system in China.

Fairness and justice is a core value of socialism as well as the soul of the rule of law in China. Fairness is the lifeline of the rule of law. In order to advance in an all-round way ruling the country by law, we must adhere to the principles of relying on the people, benefiting the people, protecting the people, taking the safeguarding of people’s basic rights and interests as the starting point and ultimate goal, ensuring that people enjoy extensive rights and freedoms and assume corresponding responsibilities, upholding social fairness and justice and promoting common prosperity in the process of construction of the rule of law.

Since the Decision on Several Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform (hereinafter referred to as the Decision), adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee, puts forward for the first time in history the reform objective of “promoting the modernization of the state governance system and capacity”, “state governance” and “the modernization of state governance”, as two important concepts of political science, have quickly become “hot words” that have attracted much attention from the Chinese academic circle and led to heated discussions in which all kinds of opinions have been put forward. Actually state governance is an “old concept”.

The convening of the Eighteenth CPC Party Congress and the adoption of a series of major strategic arrangements at the third and the fourth plenary sessions of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee have sounded the bugle call for the advancement of economic, political, social, cultural and ecological constructions in China, declared the beginning of a new historical period of development of the great cause of comprehensively ruling country by law and building a state under the rule of law, and indicated that the great practice of comprehensively deepening the reform, promoting development, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered into a new stage.

In the process of developing socialist democracy and rule of law since the founding of the PRC, especially since the reform and opening up, the debate on the relationship between the Party (mainly referring to the CPC and the leadership of the CPC) and law (mainly referring to the Constitution, laws, socialist rule of law, ruling the country by law, and the construction of the rule of law) has never ceased.