Rule Of Law In China: Progress And Problems. Lin Li

achieve was to ensure implementation and effectiveness of law. “Before, without a legal system, we acted largely upon policies. But after the law is established, we must act resolutely according to law”.¹³ The Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee stated that exercising state power by law is a basic approach for the Party’s governance under the new historical conditions. To achieve law-based exercise of state power is to keep to law-based governance of the country and the building of a socialist rule-of-law country. The Party must lead legislation, ensure law enforcement, and lead the way in abiding by the law; constantly promote legalization and standardization in the country’s economic, political, cultural, and social life; and guarantee that the Party leads the people in effectively governing the country with rule-of-law concepts, institutions, and procedures.

      The establishment of the rule of law as the Party’s basic approach to exercising governance of the country is based on the Party’s practical experience in revolution, construction, and reform, and is a new concept concluded by the Party in leading the construction of the socialist rule of law, advancing law-based governance of the country, and exercising of state power. Its essential requisites are: First, the development of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics and the building of a socialist country ruled by law needs to keep to the organic integration of the Party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and law-based governance of the country. This is the natural requisite and the essential characteristic of comprehensively advancing law-based governance of the country and building a socialist rule-of-law country. Second, the Party not only leads the people in enacting and enforcing the Constitution and the laws, but also operates within the confines of the Constitution and the laws itself so that it truly leads legislation, ensures law enforcement, supports the administration of justice, and takes the lead in abiding by the law. This is the basic content and major task of the Party in exercising governance of the country according to the Constitution and the laws. Third, we must adhere to the principle that everyone is equal before the Constitution and the laws. All organizations or individuals must confine their activities to the areas prescribed by the Constitution and the laws; no organization or individual is allowed to override the law with their own arbitrary fiats, place their own power above the law, or bend the law for personal gain. This is the basic principle and boundary line of abiding by the socialist rule of law. Fourth, the Party must act as the leading core to ensure its exercise of overall leadership and coordinate everyone’s efforts, uphold the basic policy of law-based governance of the country, and the basic approach to law-based exercising of state power. The Party should be adept at helping its propositions become the will of the country through statuary procedures, guiding the candidates it backs to become leaders of the organs of state power through these procedures, and exercising leadership over the state and society through these organs, and supporting the state, administrative, judicial, and procuratorial organs to work independently and in a coordinated manner in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. This is the general requirement and basic method for the Party to exercise governance of the country by applying the basic principle of the rule of law. Fifth, leading officials of Party organizations at all levels and Party members should take the lead in exercising the rule of law and continuously improve the Party’s capability for and adeptness of governing the country according to law, so as to constantly promote the institutionalization and legalization of all state administration activities. Leading officials at all levels should increasingly apply rule-of-law thinking and methods to deepening reforms, promoting development, resolving disputes, and maintaining their abilities to make steady progress to eventually form a rule-of-law environment in which the people consciously observe the law, look to the law if they meet with difficulties, rely on the law to resolve their problems and disputes, and promote all kinds of work on the track of the rule of law. This is the basic quality and governance capability that Party organizations and leading officials at all levels should have under the new situation of governing the country according to law.

      Regulating and guaranteeing the performance of the ruling Party’s governance activities and its activities within the Party according to law is an essential requisite for adhering to the organic unity of the Party’s leadership and law-based governance of the country, and for upholding the essential characteristics of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics. In the practice that the Party leads the people to fully implement the basic principle of governing the country according to law, and in the construction process where the Party leads legislation, ensures law enforcement, and takes the lead in observing the law, the Party itself more consciously upholds the principle of governing the country according to and acting within the confines of the Constitution and other laws. It continuously strengthens the building of its regulations and institutions, and incorporates its rules and regulations into the orbit of law-based governance and the rule of law. In May 2013, the first “legislation law” in the history of the CPC to regulate CPC was promulgated, i.e. the Provisions on Formation of Party Rules of the Communist Party of China. At the same time, accompanying this law was the Regulations on Putting on Records Party Regulations and Normative Documents of the Communist Party of China, which stipulates the legislative procedures. In August of the same year, the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Repealing and Announcing the Expiry of a Number of Party Legislations and Normative Documents was released, according to which 300 of the Party’s laws and normative documents formulated since 1978 were annulled and declared invalid, 467 of those remained in force, and 42 would be amended. At the end of 2013, the CPC Central Committee released the Outline of the Five-Year Plan for the Formulation of Regulations within the Central Party (2013–2017). All these have greatly strengthened and standardized the activities for the development of the Party’s rules and regulations, and ensured and promoted the Party’s progress in exercising governance over its members and the country according to law.

      2.3.Keeping to the People-Oriented Principle, and Respecting and Safeguarding Human Rights

      Human rights are the rights that people enjoy as human beings. Human rights include not only individual rights but also collective rights, and not only civil and political rights but also economic, social, and cultural rights. As a developing country, China gives the highest priority to the people’s rights to subsistence and development. In China, the core principle to advance human rights is to guarantee the equal participation and development of all members of the society.

      Adhering to the people-oriented principle and respecting and safeguarding human rights is the bounden duty of the socialist rule of law and the important task of comprehensively promoting the governance of the country according to law. China attaches great importance to respecting and safeguarding human rights. In its course of exploring the socialist path with Chinese characteristics, China not only respects the universal human rights principle, but also opens up a path of human rights development with Chinese characteristics based on the fundamental realities of the country. The 1982 Constitution highlighted the guarantee of the basic rights for citizens and shifted the provision about the “basic rights and obligations of citizens” from the third chapter of the 1954 Constitution to the second chapter, a more prominent position, and the number of the related articles also increased from more than 10 to more than 20. In 1991, the Chinese government released its first white paper on human rights. For the first time in 1997, respecting and guaranteeing human rights was written into the report of the Party’s 15th National Congress. The 2004 constitutional amendment incorporated the provision of “the state’s respect for and protection of human rights” into the Constitution as a constitutional provision, providing the development of human rights with a solid foundation at the constitutional level. The incorporation of “state’s respect for and protection of human rights” into the Constitution marks China’s efforts of holding high the banner of human rights and actively promoting human rights, and embodies the important features of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.

      As a country that has written laws, to safeguard the full realization of human rights, China not only incorporates human rights into the Constitution, but also works hard on bringing into effect the people’s civil, political, economic, cultural, and social rights through legislation, law enforcement, and justice institutions and measures. China’s guarantee of human rights through legislation is mainly realized by constitutionalizing, legalizing, and regulating the content and appeals of human rights to make them enter the national legal