Rule of law bedrock of fair and transparent business environment

The central authorities recently said that China will further standardize administrative law enforcement behavior with regard to enterprises, adopt more inclusive supervision and flexible law enforcement methods, and prevent selective law enforcement or imposition of random fines, random inspections and random seizures.

For some time now, arbitrary administrative inspections, abuse of discretionary power, fine-oriented law enforcement, selective law enforcement and other enterpriserelated law enforcement malpractices have seriously affected the normal functioning of enterprises. Particularly, the "illegal law enforcement in nonlocal places", or places outside the area of jurisdiction of certain law enforcement agencies has triggered widespread angst, shaking the confidence of some enterprises in the business environment.

Some local law enforcement agencies still try to rein in private entrepreneurs in areas beyond their jurisdiction, or illegally seal, freeze and/or transfer their properties. Such actions have obviously weakened private entrepreneurs' sense of security, increased their operating costs, disturbed their normal operation, and affected investment-making decisions. Such malpractices have also greatly damaged the credibility and authority of law enforcement agencies and the government. Once the credibility of local governments is lost, it is difficult to build it up in a short period of time.

So the authorities should standardize and improve the administrative law enforcement assistance system between different regions. That way entrepreneurs can operate peacefully, and prevent some people from suddenly losing their jobs because of "illegal law enforcement" by certain law enforcement agencies.

In order to achieve this goal, the country must rely on the rule of law and effectively stop power from being abused in the hands of individual law enforcement agencies. It should enhance the fairness and transparency of law enforcement by strengthening institutional constraints and supervision and accountability.

BEIJING NEWS