Legal Daily:

The law on publicity and education on the rule of law came into effect last year. As the government department responsible for nationwide publicity and education on the rule of law, what specific arrangements has the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) made for legal publicity and education concerning the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law? Thank you.

Hu Weilie:

I'll take this question. First, thank you for your question. The Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law serves as the basic law for giving effect to the relevant constitutional provisions, handling ethnic affairs, and carrying out ethnic work in the new era. Promoting the study and public awareness of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law is an important task in increasing public legal literacy. As you just mentioned, Article 20 of the law on publicity and education on the rule of law clearly stipulates that ethnic affairs departments should take strengthening the sense of community of the Chinese nation as the guiding principle in carrying out publicity and education on the rule of law, promoting ethnic unity and progress, enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation, and advancing the building of the Chinese national community. Going forward, the MOJ will thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and General Secretary Xi Jinping's key theory on strengthening and improving work on ethnic affairs. It will focus on three areas of work in carrying out legal publicity and education related to the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law.

First, we need to fully implement the responsibility system for public legal education. In conjunction with the study and implementation of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law and the upcoming formulation and implementation of the ninth five-year plan on increasing public legal literacy, the MOJ will promote relevant departments across various regions to earnestly implement the principle that law enforcement authorities are responsible for public legal education. We will also integrate the study and public education of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law into the entire process of legislation, law enforcement and judicial work related to ethnic affairs. The MOJ will promote the establishment of a regular communication and cooperation mechanism between judicial and administrative departments at all levels and departments of united front work and ethnic affairs. In the process of carrying out administrative reconsideration, administrative law enforcement supervision and legal services related to ethnic affairs, we will strengthen legal publicity and education and enhance the sense of national awareness, civic awareness and rule-of-law awareness among people of all ethnic groups. The MOJ will encourage media platforms to fulfill their responsibility for providing public-interest legal education and widely publish, broadcast and disseminate relevant authoritative interpretations and explanatory articles. We will also guide people of all ethnic groups to foster a firm and correct understanding of the country, history, ethnicity, culture and religion.

Second, we will step up themed public awareness campaigns. In conjunction with the compilation of the national directory of rule-of-law culture venues, a task mandated by the law on publicity and education on the rule of law, we will promote the integration of rule-of-law culture and ethnic culture in ethnic minority areas organically and create rule-of-law culture brands with distinctive ethnic characteristics. We will draw on themed activities such as Constitution Publicity Week, Ethnic Unity and Progress Publicity Week, National Security Education Day and Civil Code Publicity Month, mobilizing trained community legal volunteers, legal knowledge publicity volunteers and university student legal education teams to bring the Party's ethnic policies and related laws and regulations to communities, villages, schools, social organizations and religious venues. This will guide the whole society to correctly grasp several key relationships: between commonality and difference; between the sense of community for the Chinese nation and the sense of identity among various ethnic groups; between Chinese culture and the cultures of various ethnic groups; and between material and spiritual development. The goal is to enhance shared commonality while respecting and embracing difference.

Third, we will strive to improve the quality and effectiveness of legal education. We will focus on key groups and promote the inclusion of laws such as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law into the list of Party regulations and national laws that leading officials at all levels are required to know and master. This will continuously improve leading officials' awareness and ability to carry out ethnic work using thinking and approaches based on the rule of law. We will implement the outline of rule of law education for teenagers, making the rule-of-law education on ethnic unity and progress an important part of legal education in primary and secondary schools. We will also incorporate such education into study tours, exchange programs and rule-of-law practice activities for teenagers. We will adhere to the principle of combining public legal education with law-based governance, and integrate the study and publicity of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law into the development of national model villages (communities) for democracy and the rule of law, and national model cities (counties, districts) for law-abiding practices and legal education. By doing so, we will promote continuous improvement of the rule of law in social governance in ethnic minority areas and promote interactions, exchanges and integration among all ethnic groups.

That's all from me for this question. Thank you.