Rein in state power or face a national crisis, says professor

China should introduce more constitutional checks on the power of the government to prevent the country plunging into crisis, according to Peking University law professor He Weifang . He said mainland authorities were under mounting pressure for deeper judicial reforms to ease tensions over their poor handling of disputes with the public. 'China is in the throes of a looming crisis as a result of the market economic reform, which has helped us solve some problems on one hand, while exposing many deep-rooted defects in our political systems on the other hand,' he said. Professor He noted that last year had seen widespread public debate on the need to curb corruption and set up checks and balances on officials' power in the wake of a spate of mine blasts, land disputes and other crises, which often involved violence and huge economic losses. Officials came under attack over the water pollution crisis in Harbin, riots in Shanwei, Guangdong, where at least three villagers were killed in December after police fired on protestors, and in Dingzhou , Hebei , where at least six villagers were beaten to death after refusing eviction in June. 'All these disputes have shown that we must build a modern constitutional system which strictly defines the power of the government. It isn't a bad thing if it doesn't lead to turbulence. 'Nothing is more helpful than bringing justice to every case in order to prevent tragedies.' Professor He questioned the handling of the case of Fujian anti-graft hero Huang Jingao , imprisoned for life last November on corruption charges. Huang, the former Communist Party chief of the province's Lianjiang county, embarrassed local authorities by writing to the website of the party mouthpiece People's Daily alleging rampant official corruption. He was convicted despite the absence of prosecution witnesses at his trial. 'Although it would be difficult to let more than 100 witnesses for the prosecution testify at the trial, it was even more stunning and rare that none of them appeared at the court,' Professor He said. 'It [the conviction] was apparently a result of political intervention.' As one of the leading voices for judicial and court reforms in the past decade, Professor He began to pay more attention to the building of constitutional government, concluding that no legal reforms could proceed without reform of the political system. He arrived at that conclusion based on the case of Sun Zhigang , a Wuhan university graduate beaten to death in police custody in Guangzhou in 2003. He was detained for failing to carry his temporary residence permit. Professor He was one of the most outspoken legal scholars who called for an official investigation into Sun's tragic death through the establishment of an inquiry commissioned by the National People's Congress, an avenue provided by the constitution. But it never happened, despite a public outcry questioning local authorities' powers. Instead, Beijing only agreed to abolish a decades-old regulation allowing migrants to be rounded up arbitrarily and sent home. Although belated, a move by the NPC in December to set up a procedure for the repeal of local rules that violated superseding laws and the constitution was a small step forward, Professor He said. 'Overall, there were few achievements in judicial reform last year to brag about.' He urged the authorities to make real moves towards an independent judiciary, rather than staging more shows, such as the public hearing on the income tax threshold last year, which went through a rehearsal to suit the needs of state television. Professor He has also campaigned for the abolition of executions. He thinks the death penalty issue deserves a lot more public attention. China tops the world in the number of people condemned to death every year. At least 5,000 executions were carried out on the mainland in 2004, according to the group Hands Off Cain. Although the Supreme People's Court withdrew the provincial courts' authority to approve death sentences from this year, Professor He said it remained to be seen whether this would reduce the number of executions. He also questioned the top legislature's plan to recruit more than 300 judges to handle the increased workload. 'Does that mean we will not reduce the number of executions?' he asked. While Professor He is aware the revocation of executions will not come any time soon, he is calling on mainland law scholars to join his campaign.