Laudable progress in advancing rule of law

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October 2014 decided to advance the rule of law in an all-round way. The decision is regarded as the road map for the comprehensive advancement of the rule of law under the leadership of the Party with comrade Xi Jinping as its core.

The highlights of the decision include deepening the litigation system reform with the focus on trials, and implementing the accountability mechanism to track cases and rectify erroneous court verdicts. So the establishment of circuit courts and the Intellectual Property Court by the Supreme People's Court should be seen as part of the legal reform.

Besides, legal education has been included in the national education system, and promotion of the rule of law made a yardstick to measure officials' political performance. Also, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a regulation in December 2016 that says local leading officials and Party leaders should be primarily responsible for advancing the rule of law, and their performance in this regard should be taken into consideration for their promotion. As a result, the local leading officials and Party leaders are not only focusing on GDP growth but also attaching great importance to advancing the rule of law.