China’s lawmakers told to vigorously study Xi Jinping’s legal theories

Name: SCMP Explains: How does the Chinese Communist Party operate?
Uploaded: 2021-04-21T10:45:05.000Z
Duration: 6 min 45 s
Description: SCMP Explains: How does the Chinese Communist Party operate?

National People’s Congress should use Xi’s ideas as ‘fundamental guidance’, Wang Chen, a top aide of the president, says in lecture to more than 250 lawmakers

Remarks seen as effort to lift Xi’s status in the Communist Party’s history ahead of its centenary in July

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Wang Chen was responsible for shepherding the NPC to pass Hong Kong’s National Security Law and electoral reforms. Photo: Xinhua

Jun Mai

Published: 6:45pm, 21 Apr 2021Updated: 6:45pm, 21 Apr 2021

Legal theories by President Xi Jinping are the “fundamental guidance” to govern China with laws, a top aide of Xi said as he lectured the country’s lawmakers.

“Delegates to [China’s top legislature] the National People’s Congress … should take the lead to vigorously study the scientific system of the profound essence of Xi Jinping’s thought on ruling the country by law,” Wang Chen, a vice-chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said.

The remarks by Wang, a member of the Communist Party’s 25-strong Politburo, were made on Tuesday as he lectured a group of 255 lawmakers. There are more than 2,000 seats in the NPC.

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SCMP Explains: How does the Chinese Communist Party operate?

Calling Xi’s legal theories the “latest achievement of the sinicisation of Marx’s legal theories”, Wang called on the lawmakers to firmly bear in mind that the leadership of the party was what distinguished China’s legal system from those in the West.

Xi’s legal theories marked the third and most recent major achievement in China’s legal theories, after the Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping eras, he said.

Wang’s speech was seen largely as another effort to lift Xi’s personal status in the Communist Party’s history ahead of its centenary in July.

Plans for the anniversary – the most important political task of the year for many Chinese officials – include political gatherings and extensive propaganda campaigns under especially tight social control.

The centenary is seen as particularly important for Xi, who is expected to seek a third term as the party’s leader in next year’s 20th national congress.