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Read in Chinese

Speakers:

Tang Yijun, deputy director of the Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and minister of justice

Xu Anbiao, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee

Gao Jinghong, justice and vice president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC)

Chen Guoqing, grand prosecutor and deputy prosecutor general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP)

Xiong Xuanguo, a member of the Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC and vice minister of justice

Gan Lin, vice minister of the State Administration of Market Regulation and commissioner of the State Anti-Monopoly Bureau

Chairperson:

Chen Wenjun, spokesperson of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee

Date:

July 28, 2022

Chen Wenjun:

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to this press conference held by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. Today, we are holding the 18th press conference under the theme of "China in the past decade." We will brief you on China's achievements in promoting the rule of law in the new era and answer your questions.

Advancing the rule of law is an important part of the four-pronged strategy, which consists of legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, public legal education and other work. Specifically, the Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC is responsible for researching major issues concerning the rule of law, and coordinating and supervising the implementation of relevant major decisions and arrangements. The Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the NPC, the State Administration of Market Regulation, the SPC, the SPP, and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) are responsible for legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, and public legal education.

The authorities attending today's press conference are very representative, including the State Administration for Market Regulation, which is an extremely important law enforcement agency in this field and concerns the vital interests of the common people. Next, I would like to introduce the speakers who are attending today’s press conference. They are: Mr. Tang Yijun, deputy director of the Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC Central Committee and minister of justice; Mr. Xu Anbiao, a member of the NPC Standing Committee and deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee; Mr. Gao Jinghong, justice and vice president of the SPC; Mr. Chen Guoqing, grand prosecutor and deputy prosecutor general of the SPP; Mr. Xiong Xuanguo, a member of the Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC and vice minister of justice; and Ms. Gan Lin, vice minister of the State Administration of Market Regulation and commissioner of the State Anti-Monopoly Bureau.

Now, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Tang for his introduction.

Tang Yijun:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the press, good afternoon. Welcome to the press conference. I would like to extend my sincere thanks for your long-term attention, interest and support regarding the work concerning rule of law.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has integrated the rule of law into the four-pronged strategy and pushed ahead with it. The fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee rolled out more than 180 major reform measures. For the first time, a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee was dedicated to researching comprehensive law-based governance. The 19th CPC National Congress drew up a grand blueprint for basically building a country, government and society based on the rule of law by 2035. The third plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee decided to set up the Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC to strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the Party on law-based governance in China. The central conference on work related to overall law-based governance held in November 2020 marked the first time research was conducted into and deployments were made related to law-based governance in the form of a Party central conference, recognizing the status of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law as the guiding thought for law-based governance in China. In the past decade since the 18th CPC National Congress, thoughts on law-based governance have taken shape, led the way and contributed to China's progress. 

The guiding position of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law has been fully established. 

In the practice of leading the whole Party and the whole country to advance rule of law, General Secretary Xi Jinping, with the profound insight and theoretical creativity as a Marxist statesman, thinker and strategist, combined the Marxist theory of the rule of law with China's reality and China's excellent traditional legal culture, and proposed a series of original and representative new concepts, new ideas and new strategies, which led to the formation of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. A new leap has been made in adapting Marxist theory of the rule of law to the Chinese context and the needs of the times. Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law has pointed the way forward and provided the fundamental guidelines for the overall rule of law in the new era.

The Party's leadership over the comprehensive law-based governance has been stronger.

We have adhered to and strengthened the Party's centralized and unified leadership of comprehensive law-based governance, and established and improved the system and mechanism for the Party to lead the work related to the rule of law. General Secretary Xi Jinping serves as the head of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC, researching and solving major issues in comprehensively advancing rule of law. Centralized leadership, efficient decision-making, unified deployments and coordinated advancements have been made. We have strengthened top-level design. A plan to build the rule of law in China (2020-2025), an outline on promoting the building of a rule of law government (2020-2025), and an outline on promoting the building of a rule of law society (2020-2025) were rolled out. The primary Party and government officials are the first to be held accountable for law-based governance. Offices of rule of law commissions at the provincial, city and county level have been set up to strengthen the organization, leadership and overall coordination in advancing the rule of law in all regions, and to ensure the implementation of all major decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee on comprehensively advancing law-based governance.

Significant progress has been made in comprehensively advancing law-based governance. 

We have upheld law-based governance, law-based exercise of power and law-based government administration, and adopted a holistic approach to promote rule of law across the nation, in government and throughout society. We have endeavored to ensure that a well-conceived approach is taken to legislation, that the law is strictly enforced, that justice is impartially administered, and that the law is observed by everyone. We have accelerated the building of a socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, comprehensively strengthened the implementation and supervision of the Constitution, compiled the Civil Code, formulated the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and revised and improved the Hong Kong election system. By the end of June 2022, more than 730 laws and administrative regulations have been formulated and revised. With 292 currently valid laws and 598 administrative regulations, the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is constantly being improved. We have deepened the reform of the administrative system and promoted the implementation of the "three systems" of administrative law enforcement publicity system, law enforcement process record system, and review system for major law enforcement decisions, in order to set examples and strengthen inspection. The building of a law-based government has been steadily advanced. We have deepened the reform of the judicial system, with a focus on the judicial responsibility system, advanced the reform of the criminal litigation system centered on court trials, and promoted the separation of the handling of complex and simple civil lawsuits. We have strictly implemented the three provisions to prevent judicial interference, and carried out a special campaign to crack down on organized crime and local mafia. We have overturned wrongful verdicts in accordance with the law and safeguarded social fairness, justice and the rule of law more effectively. The "seventh five-year" public legal education plan was fully implemented, the "eighth five-year" plan has been solidly advanced, and awareness of the rule of law throughout the whole society has been significantly improved. We have continued to promote the resolution of outstanding problems in the field of the rule of law, and the people's sense of gain, happiness and security under the rule of law have been continuously enhanced.

Law-based governance has supported reform and development, achieving remarkable achievements.

We have improved laws and regulations and introduced guiding opinions to strengthen the legal guarantee of major national development strategies. These include the comprehensive deepening of the reform and opening up in Hainan province, the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the construction of the Shenzhen pilot demonstration zone. We have adhered to the principle of preventing and controlling the epidemic in accordance with the law, ensuring the coordinated development of the epidemic response and socio-economic development. Legal systems have been improved to forestall and defuse major financial risks, legislation and law enforcement of ecological environment protection have been strengthened, and rural construction under the rule of law has been advanced. These efforts have provided a robust legal guarantee and effective legal service to ensure the success of the three critical battles against major risks, poverty, and pollution. We have followed the spirit that the rule of law can provide the best business environment and have taken stronger actions against monopolies and unfair competition. We have taken a coordinated approach to advance the rule of law at home and in matters involving foreign parties, accelerated the strategic planning for the rule of law on issues related to foreign parties, and applied law-based thinking and approaches to safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests effectively.

Team building capacity has been continuously improved. 

We have implemented the guiding principle of important speeches of General Secretary Xi Jinping and carried out activities for in-depth study of the CPC's history and improving the team's conduct. We have strengthened the capacity building of the legislative and law-enforcement units, and promoted the personnel quota system for judges and procurators as well as separate post ranks for the police, making our team more regularized, professional, and dedicated to the revolution. We have continued to promote the construction of the public legal service system and see that our legal service teams of lawyers, notaries, judicial authenticators, arbitrators, and mediators, among others, have continued to grow. As of June 2022, there were 605,000 lawyers and more than 37,000 law firms across the country. We have improved China’s unified qualification exam system for legal professionals. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, a total of 1.029 million persons have been certified for a legal professional qualification, further strengthening the education and theoretical research on the science of law and fostering many high-quality personnel and reserve forces.

We have made historical achievements and seen historical changes in comprehensively promoting law-based governance in the new era. Such achievements were obtained because of the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party and the sound guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. Going forward on the new journey, we will continue to strive and forge ahead, providing a solid legal guarantee for achieving the second centenary goal and national rejuvenation.

That's my brief introduction to law-based governance in the new era. Now, we are ready to answer your questions.