The Communist Party of China (CPC) set the blueprint for rule of law in the world's second-largest economy during a recent key meeting, which also highlighted the Party leadership and the overarching role of the Constitution in the country's legal system.

According to a communique issued after the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, held in Beijing from October 20 to 23, the overall target of the CPC's current drive is to build a country with socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.

The communique said that "to realize rule of law, the country should be governed in line with the Constitution."

The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee should play a better role in supervising the Constitution's implementation and a mechanism to examine the legitimacy of major decisions should be set up for governments. There should be a life-long accountability system for major decisions, it said.

This marks the first time a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee has taken rule of law as its central theme.

The plenum also adopted a decision on "major issues concerning comprehensively advancing rule of law."

In September 1997, the report adopted at the 15th CPC National Congress historically dictated "governing the country according to law and making it a socialist country ruled by law." During the 1999 amendment of the Constitution, it was written into the Constitution. Since then, the Party leadership has never stopped striving to promote the rule of law in China.

Less than one month after being elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at a congress on December 4, 2012, marking the 30th anniversary of the implementation of China's 1982 Constitution. Xi said the supervising system that ensures the Constitution was obeyed was not well established, and occasional dereliction of duty dented the authority of the judicial system.

"No organization or individual has the privilege to overstep the Constitution and the law, and any violation of the Constitution and the law must be investigated," he said.

Explaining the decision on "major issues concerning comprehensively deepening reforms" after its adoption at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November 2013, Xi said judicial reform would be a major part of China's overall reform.

"The key to implementing rule of law is to check administrative power according to laws. In other words, public power must be restrained and private rights must be protected," said Guo Daohui, one of earliest advocators of rule of law in China.

The State Council said on September 10 that it would delegate power to lower-level governments in order to promote efficiency and clear obstacles standing in the way of economic growth.

Lessons learned

The communique said China will establish a mechanism in which officials will be given demerits or held accountable if found interfering in judicial cases.

Li Zhuang, then a lawyer, was jailed in January 2010 after defending an organized crime boss in Chongqing Municipality.

Li was convicted of falsifying evidence after the gang leader, caught in the municipality's campaign against organized crime, accused the lawyer of asking him to lie about being tortured by police. The campaign was initiated by Bo Xilai, then the Party chief of Chongqing.

Li, who denied the charge, won wide support from lawyers, legal scholars and intellectuals nationwide, who were outraged by what they saw as widespread legal abuses during Bo's "strike black" campaign.

"The best possible model of the rule of law is through education of the masses in ethics, duty and discipline [so that] they can obey laws voluntarily," said Li recently.

Tang Hui, a native of Yongzhou, Hunan Province, is nationally known as the "petition mother." Her widely reported appeals helped bring about the abolishment of the re-education through labor program.

She was put in a labor and re-education camp in 2012 for petitioning for harsher punishments for those found guilty of raping her then 11-year-old daughter and forcing the child into prostitution in 2006. Accused of disrupting public order, Tang was sentenced to 18 months in the camp in August 2012, but released after just eight days following a public outcry.

In July 2013, a court in Hunan ruled in favor of Tang when she sued the local authorities for infringing upon her personal freedom and causing psychological damage. The Yongzhou labor camp administration was asked to pay Tang 2,641 yuan ($429) in compensation.

The re-education through labor system, instituted in 1957, allowed detention for up to four years without an open trial. It was abolished by a motion adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in December 2013.

"I don't fully understand the meaning of the rule of law, but as far as I know, even if there are sensible policies, they might not be properly implemented by authorities at the local level," said Tang recently.

She said her years of petitioning in Hunan and Beijing revealed that legal justice was hard to obtain in smaller places; "decent people and officials" could be found only in places like Beijing.

China will try to recruit law makers, judges and prosecutors from qualified lawyers and law experts, said the communique.

The system of internment and deportation of urban vagrants and beggars was established as an administrative procedure in 1982. It allowed the police to detain people who did not have a residence permit or temporary living permit, and deport them to their hometowns.

Sun Zhigang, a 27-year-old graphic designer from Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, was picked up by police on March 17, 2003, during a random identity check in Guangzhou, where he worked in a garment company. Immediately put into a detention center, the young man died three days later due to brutal beatings by fellow detainees.

Sun's death received massive attention in newspapers and on the Internet. Two groups of senior Chinese legal scholars wrote to the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the custody and repatriation regulation. The system was ended by the State Council in June 2003 and the detention centers were replaced by service stations to care for beggars or homeless people.

"Injustice can arise if a country's laws are insufficient or outdated. Laws are like iron and steel. Rust must go back to the blast furnace to be melted into metal," said Sun's father, Sun Lusong, recently.

The communique said channels for citizens to participate in legislative efforts would be widened.

International recognition

"I do believe that [rule of law] will be essential. As the Chinese economy becomes more sophisticated, the need for the rule of law becomes even greater," said Charles Powell, former Chairman of the China-Britain Business Council.

"I think it will give people a lot of confidence in China if they know the courts are independent, reach their judgments independently, and all institutions of the state and the Party are subject to that same rule of law," the seasoned politician said.

Etienne Reuter, Director at Elliott Consultants Ltd. in Brussels, said the phrase "rule of law" is not new in the CPC's official discourse, but it has new implications given today's new circumstances.

"The opening and transformation of China's economy following Deng Xiaoping's four modernizations has entered a new phase requiring greater environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness. The people of China aspire for a better quality of life and a fairer society," Reuter said. "In this respect, the rule of law provides the essential underpinning for combating pollution and degradation of the environment as well as for the fight against corruption."

Paul Gewirtz, professor of law and Director of the China Center at Yale Law School, wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times: "There are reasons for a measure of optimism that the plenum will demonstrate more complex views about the roles law can play and also take meaningful steps to advance new legal reforms."

The current leadership has already signed many reforms and even adjustments in ideology that represent positive steps toward a modern system of rule of law, said Gewirtz. "These changes aren't just window-dressing; they reflect the leadership's recognition that it needs to improve governance, address widespread public grievances, and respond to public opinion."