China’s legal reforms seek to cement party leadership’s role
- Blueprint for ‘socialist rule of law’ puts role of core leadership at its heart
- Overhaul will ‘basically be completed’ by 2035, according to document issued by Central Committee
The Chinese Communist Party has unveiled new plans to overhaul the country’s legal system in the next five years, emphasising the importance of the party’s leadership.
The 15,000-word document, published by state news agency Xinhua on Sunday, outlined how the leadership wanted a country with “a system of distinctively Chinese socialist rule of law”.
“By 2035, the state, government, and a society governed by the rule of law will be basically completed, a socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics will be basically formed. The [Chinese] people’s right to equal participation and development will be fully guaranteed, and the modernisation of the nation’s governance system and capabilities will be largely achieved,” it said.
The document issued by the party’s Central Committee said “upholding the centralised and unified leadership of the Communist Party” and “thorough implementation of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law” are the two main guiding principles.
It said that while the National People’s Congress will play a role in the legislative process, it must follow the central leadership’s guidance, as must those responsible for local laws.
The blueprint also said “governments at all levels must not act beyond the law” and create a business-friendly environment by removing barriers to market access.
The plan, titled The Plan to Build the Rule of Law in China (2020-2025), also puts a special emphasis on legislation to regulate new technology such as the digital economy, internet finance, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing.
The new plan shows that President Xi Jinping is pressing ahead with his “four-pronged political goals” – officially known as the “Four Comprehensives” – to be the cornerstones of China’s policies, said Xie Maosong, a political scientist at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In Communist Party parlance, the “Four Comprehensives” refer to “comprehensively governing the country by law”, “comprehensively deepening reform”, “comprehensively running the party with strict discipline”, and “comprehensively building a modestly prosperous society”.
“[For Xi], building a comprehensive legal system is extremely important for China’s stability in moving forwards,” Xie said.
According to Wang Jiangyu, director of the centre for Chinese and comparative law at City University of Hong Kong, the new plan reflects the party-state’s determination to institutionalise and rationalise its rule through law, a process called “authoritarian legality” by some scholars.
“Xi’s drive for legality seems to embrace procedural elements, including transparency, rule-based administration and governance, stability, and possibly others,” Wang said. “It is an open question whether the party can also be governed by law.”