Wield power within framework of the law

The leadership of the Party should never be an excuse for a leader to consider his or her own words as the law, to place power before the law or bend law for personal gain. This is what top leader Xi Jinping told a group of provincial leaders at a forum on governing according to the Constitution and the law on Monday.

It can be interpreted not so much an instruction as a warning to both government and Party officials. And it can also be explained as the top leadership's further emphasis on the importance of handling well the relationship between the rule of law and the leadership of the governing Communist Party of China.

Xi said that power is a double-edged sword, which will bring benefits to the people when used according to the rule of law but it will create disasters for both the people and the country when wielded outside the law.