Law-based governance provides crucial support for high-quality development: China Daily editorial

In some countries, the passage of a law aimed at promoting the private sector would see lobbyists crowding parliamentary corridors and legislators trading amendments like bargaining chips. In China, the newly enacted Private Sector Promotion Law — one of the six major new laws adopted by the National People's Congress Standing Committee over the past year — is a prudent recalibration of China's economic rule book.

The statute codifies principles that have long guided policy but were previously scattered across various regulations: impartial treatment, fair competition, equal protection and the orderly flow of production factors. In other words, it translates policy commitment into legal architecture.

The law sits within a wider legislative ledger that is striking in its scope. Over the past year alone, the NPC Standing Committee deliberated on 40 legislative items and adopted 24, including revisions to key statutes governing unfair competition, maritime affairs and foreign trade.

The second plenary meeting of the fourth session of the 14th NPC, the country's top legislature, in Beijing on Monday has laid bare the scale and depth of China's legislative drive, a clear reflection of its pursuit of high-quality development.

In the meeting, the work reports of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate — together with a report on the overhaul of existing laws — were submitted for deliberation.

Taken together, these reports demonstrate a legal and judicial system evolving in tandem with China's development, underpinning the modernization drive with institutional guarantees.

The NPC Standing Committee's work report described a steady rhythm of lawmaking: the enacting of new statutes, amending of existing ones and retiring of those that have outlived their usefulness. The law must function as a living regulatory ecosystem. Outdated provisions are pruned away, new industries are given legal scaffolding and established sectors are optimized to fit evolving national realities.

Such legislative work is the legal infrastructure on which China's modernization depends. High-quality development demands legal precision. For instance, intellectual property rights must be protected if innovation is to flourish. Corporate governance rules should evolve alongside complex capital markets, and emerging sectors of the digital economy require regulatory clarity if they are to expand without generating systemic risk.

The supreme court's work report provides the practical mirror for those legislative ambitions. Chinese courts handled roughly 37.5 million cases nationwide in 2025 and concluded around 36.2 million. Behind those numbers lies the daily functioning of the rule of law.

The supreme procuratorate complements that judicial system from another angle. As the country's top prosecutorial authority, it supervises legal enforcement while pursuing criminal prosecutions and safeguarding public interests. Its work ranges from tackling serious criminal offenses to overseeing administrative law enforcement and initiating public-interest litigation in areas such as environmental protection, food safety and consumer rights. In doing so, it operates as both guardian of procedural justice and participant in governance.

Together, these institutions embody the backbone of the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, in which legislative and judicial institutions serve development while safeguarding fairness and social stability.

With an emphasis on transparency, fairness and efficiency, the legislative and judicial agenda is integrated with broader frameworks such as the five-year plans, enabling legislation and law enforcement to evolve alongside economic priorities. As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, the legal agenda will become more demanding. Artificial intelligence, digital finance and green technology are generating new regulatory frontiers, while demographic change, urbanization and emissions reduction efforts will test the times-worthiness of existing statutes.

External pressures add another layer of factors that must be taken into account. In a turbulent international environment, China's legal institutions are increasingly tasked with protecting national interests beyond the country's borders. Cross-border commercial disputes involving multinational corporations and the legal protection of Chinese enterprises overseas will require courts and prosecutors capable of navigating both domestic and international legal frameworks.

For global investors and trading partners, the credibility of those institutions matters. Predictable legal processes function as both shield and signal, protecting national interests while demonstrating institutional strengths.

In a country of continental scale and with a transitioning economy, the hard work of drafting statutes, adjudicating disputes and supervising enforcement may appear a daily routine. Yet it is precisely this disciplined routine — sustained, institutional and forward-looking — that determines whether the country's law-based governance can keep pace with its development trajectory.