Advancing rule of law to deepen reform

In the Government Work Report he presented to the national legislature on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang said that China would continue to thoroughly apply the basic strategy of rule of law in strict accordance with the Constitution. He stressed that all government activities would be brought in line with the rule of law through full implementation of the administrative accountability system.

On Feb 25, presiding over the second meeting of the Commission for Overall Law-based Governance of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, President Xi Jinping, who is also the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, emphasized that 40 years of reform and opening-up have shown that society cannot develop further or become more stable without the rule of law, and the importance of the rule of law will increase with the deepening of reform and opening-up.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in November 2012, Xi has been stressing the significance of comprehensively advancing rule of law. Party meetings at all levels, too, have laid emphasis on this fact. For instance, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made the promotion of rule of law an important task of the Party, with the Fourth Plenary Session setting the goal of comprehensively advancing rule of law. And the 19th National Congress of the CPC in October 2017 issued a blueprint to establish a law-based government and a society governed by law by 2035.