Govern the Country By Law in All Respects

The components of the four-pronged comprehensive strategy. Governing the country according to law is the basic strategy for the Communist Party of China to lead the people to govern the country. The comprehensive rule of law highlights the comprehensiveness of the rule of law, including the establishment of such five systems of the rule of law as a complete system of legal norms, an efficient implementation system, a strict supervision system, a strong guarantee system, and a perfect system of inner-Party laws and regulations, the joint promotion of governing the country according to law, ruling by law and administration according to law, the integrated construction of a country, government, and society based on the rule of law, and so on.

In October 2014, the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee adopted “The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Advancing Governing the Country by Law”, and made overall arrangements for the comprehensive rule of law. The overall goal of comprehensively promoting the rule of law is to establish a system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and build a country of socialist rule of law. The tasks of comprehensively promoting the rule of law are as follows: To improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics with the Constitution as the core and strengthen the implementation of the Constitution; To further promote administration according to law and speed up the construction of a government ruled by law; To ensure fair administration of justice and improve judicial credibility; To strengthen the concept of the rule of law among the whole people and to promote the construction of a society ruled by law; To strengthen the legal work force; To strengthen and improve the Party’s leadership in promoting the rule of law in an all-round way.

Comprehensively governing the country according to law is CPC’s summary of the historical experience on the pros and cons of governing the country. Since Reform and Opening-up, we have always adhered to the Party’s position as the core of leadership in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and at the same time defined governing the country according to law as the basic strategy and administrating according to law as the basic way for the Party to govern the country, thus ensuring the smooth progress of the cause of reform, opening up and modernization. In the new historical period, especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, China’s construction of the rule of law has made great progress but is still faced with many problems. Now that building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has entered a critical stage and reform entered a critical period and a deep-water zone, governing the country according to law plays a more prominent and important role in the overall work of the Party and the state. Comprehensively promoting the rule of law is an important guarantee for the smooth completion of the Party’s objectives and tasks, the victory of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and speeding up socialist modernization. It is also the fundamental requirement for solving a series of major problems we are facing in the course of development, liberating and enhancing social vitality, promoting social fairness and justice, maintaining social harmony and stability, and ensuring the long-term stability of the country.

The most fundamental problem of comprehensively governing the country according to law is to correctly understand and grasp the relationship between the Party and the law. To adhere to the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to the unity of Party leadership , the running of the country by the people and law-based governance. Party leadership is highly consistent with the socialist rule of law. It is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the most fundamental guarantee of the socialist rule of law. At the same time, Party leadership must rely on the socialist rule of law in that the Party has to govern the country according to the constitution and law and govern the Party in accordance with inner-Party laws and regulations.

A comprehensive framework for promoting the rule of law is an important part of the four-pronged comprehensive strategy. A comprehensive framework for promoting the rule of law is an important part of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and provides legal guarantee for it. Both comprehensively deepening reform and exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party need to be carried out on the track and under the framework of the rule of law.