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

country according to law and speeding up the building of a socialist country ruled by law.

      The object of law knowledge popularization is all citizens, with emphasis on national civil servants. For the ordinary citizens, the purpose of popularizing legal knowledge is not only to let every citizen know, respect, and abide by law, but more importantly, let the citizens learn to use legal weapons to safeguard their own legitimate rights and interests. For national officials, they are required to firmly establish the concept of the rule of law, and work more consciously according to law. As for the whole society, the promotion of a rule-of-law spirit, the cultivation of a rule-of-law culture, and a good social atmosphere are essential. During the fifth law popularization Five-Year Plan, we strengthened the training and examination on legal knowledge in evaluating the qualification of civil servants. More than 42 million civil servants were trained in the country. More than 27 million legal knowledge examinations were held among civil servants. More than 98% of civil servants attended annual legal knowledge studies. More than 33,500 legal knowledge drills were held for business management personnel with more than 2.9 million trainees. More than 51,300 lectures and seminars were held with over 6.2 million participants. More than 12 million cadres from rural “two committees” were trained and 156 million rural migrant workers took part in training, which raised farmers’ legal awareness.

      China attaches great importance to the integration of popularization of legal knowledge and law-based administration and extensively carries out the policy of “governing the province (cities, counties, townships, and villages) according to law”, launching activities for the establishment of rule-of-law cities and counties (cities and districts), integrating the rule of law in different places, departments, and units in everyday work and citizens’ production and life, and striving to increase the level of the rule of law in society and realizing the combination of law knowledge and its application. By the end of 2010, 26 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), 241 cities (prefectures, states, and leagues) and 1,856 counties (cities and districts) had all conducted activities concerning the establishment and construction of the rule of law. In all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) leading groups were established at different levels for publicity of and education on legal knowledge, with Party committees and governments leaders or division leaders being the group leaders. Mechanisms of law-based legal knowledge publicity and education were established and improved, which were implemented by governments under the leadership of Party committees and supervision of people’s congresses. In all departments and industries, groups consisting of major leaders or division leaders of the departments and industries were set up for the publicity of and education on legal knowledge to enhance their publicity and education work.

      Since 1994, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee has successively held over 100 legal knowledge lectures or group studies, of which nearly 30 were about the construction of the rule of law or involved the content of the rule of law. The Central Political Bureau took the lead in conducting lectures and studies on the rule of law and played a good exemplary role in promoting legal knowledge in society, especially among the public servants in the country, establishing the people’s awareness about the rule of law and strengthening their concept of the rule of law. The NPC Standing Committee, the State Council executive meeting, and the members of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee held a series of studies on the rule of law. Studying legal knowledge in a collective way had developed into a system among the Party organizations and state organs at all levels.

      In addition, remarkable achievements have also been made in China’s legal services, legal education, legal studies, legal personnel training, and the establishment of a rule-of-law team.

       3.Fundamental Experience of Building the Socialist Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics

      The building of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics has witnessed a tortuous development over more than 60 years and has made remarkable achievements that have amazed the world. It has accumulated many valuable experiences.

       3.1.Insist on the Leadership of the CPC in the Rule-of-Law Construction

      Upholding the leadership of the CPC in the rule-of-law construction is a basic lesson China has learned in developing socialist rule of law in the country for more than 60 years, the essential requirement and fundamental guarantee for the reform and development of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, as well as the most essential feature and most fundamental guarantee of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics itself. Different from that in the revolutionary years and the early days of the founding of the new China, the CPC has been through many major changes in terms of its central task, the environment it is in, and the team structure of the Party members. These major changes objectively call for the need to strengthen and improve the Party’s leadership and organically integrate the Party’s leadership with law-based governance of the country. Upholding the Party’s leadership in the construction of the rule of law, China needs to improve the Party’s capacity for and adeptness at governance, and also improve the Party’s leadership and governance style. To achieve law-based exercise of state power, the Party has to transform its major governance ways from previously depending largely on the use of orders and administrative means to presently depending largely on the adoption of democratic and rule-of-law means. It has to be ensured that the Party always gives top priority to the overall situation and acts as the leadership core to coordinate all parties. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed that “the need to exercise the Party’s leadership throughout the whole process and in every aspect of the law-based governance of the country is a basic lesson we have learned in developing socialist rule of law in China”. The Party must lead legislative work, ensure law enforcement, support judicial work, and lead the way in abiding by the law. The Party must practically act within the confines of the Constitution and other laws, exercise the state power according to the Constitution, and govern the country according to law. The Party should further “strengthen the unified leadership, deployment, and coordination for promoting the rule of law, improve the Party committees’ decision-making mechanism to be in accordance with the law, exert the respective advantages of policies and laws, and promote the interconnection and interaction of Party policies and state laws”.

       3.2.Adhere to the Developmental Path of Socialist Democracy and the Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics

      Developing the country based on the country’s reality, starting from its historical and realistic conditions and following the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, is another basic experience in China’s construction of the rule of law. The thousands of years of history of human political civilization has repeatedly proven the truth that the legal system a country should adopt and democratic and law-based development it should choose depend on national conditions of this country. The socialist rule of law in China, which is rooted in the vast fertile soil upon which the Chinese nation has survived and developed for thousands of years, and stems from the great practice in which the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people struggle for national independence, the liberation of the people, and the prosperity of the country, is the legal system fit for China’s national conditions and social progress requirements. Compared with capitalist rule of law, socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics is a socialist type of rule of law; compared with the concept of the ideal socialist state and legal system of Marx and Engels, it is a rule of law in the primary stage of socialism. Compared with the rule of law in other socialist countries, like the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries and now countries like Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba, it is a socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; and compared with the Chinese genealogy of law, traditional Chinese legal system, and legal culture in China’s history, it is a modernized socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, with politicalness, specialness, periodicity, and modernity as its basic features. Sticking to the path of building and developing socialist democracy and the rule of law with Chinese characteristics is an inevitable result of the development of Chinese history and society in the modern era and is the choice of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. It’s necessary to draw on what is good about traditional Chinese legal culture and learn from those practices of other countries