To comprehensively move ruling the country according to the law forward, we must send a clear signal to the whole society and point out the right direction. At the Central Working Conference on comprehensively ruling the country according to the law, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that “we should stick to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics”, and pointed out that “the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics is in essence the concrete embodiment of the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the field of rule of law”. The path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics embodies the achievements and experience of socialist legal construction, and is the only correct way to build a socialist country ruled by law. To study and implement Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law, fully and accurately understand and stick to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, we should grasp the following four basic dimensions.

To solve the deep-rooted problems of economic and social development by using the thinking and ways of rule of law

At present, the task of reform, development and stability faced by our party is unprecedented. Ruling the country according to the law plays a more prominent role in the overall work of the party and the state. It should better serve and solve the systematic, key and deep-rooted problems in the process of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, comprehensively deepening reform and comprehensively administering the party strictly.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the process of developing the socialist market economy and promoting the opening to the outside world at a higher level, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has solved many problems and accomplished many great things by using the thinking and ways of the rule of law. From the reform of the company’s registered capital registration system to the reform of the stock issuance registration system, from the multi-level capital market construction to the diversified solution of securities and futures disputes, facing the problems that once hindered the healthy development of China’s capital market, our party sticks to the use of governance measures to protect the rights and interests of investors, prevent and resolve major risks, prevent the disorderly expansion of capital, and effectively serve the high-quality development of economy and society.

The “14th five year plan” period is the first five years for China to build a well-off society in an all-round way and realize the first centenary goal, then take advantage of the situation to start a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and march towards the second centenary goal. China has entered a new stage of development, with a more solid foundation for development, profound changes in development conditions, and new opportunities and challenges for further development. In this context, the realization of the established goals depends on both reform and the rule of law. Therefore, we must correctly handle the relationship between reform and rule of law in order to stick to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and be good at solving the deep-rooted problems faced by economic and social development by using the thinking and ways of rule of law. We must not only ensure that major reforms are based on the law and promote reform on the track of the rule of law, but also prevent the rule of law becoming a “stumbling block” or “stumbling block” in the reform. In order to solve the deep-rooted problems faced by social development, we should be good at using the methods of legal authorization, invoking law, amending law, administrative authorization and administrative entrustment, so as to gather consensus on reform, improve reform decision-making, standardize reform behavior, promote the reform process and fix reform achievements. We should ensure that the reform is always comprehensively promoted and continuously deepened on the track of the rule of law. We should give full play to the role of the rule of law as a stabilizer and ballast.

To provide a long-term institutional guarantee for the development of the party and the state

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that one of the important purposes of comprehensively promoting the rule of law and enforcing the rule of law is to plan for future generations and seek long-term development. Practice has fully proved that the rule of law is the most basic, stable and reliable guarantee for the rule of system. Over the past 70 years since the founding of new China, we have created “two miracles” of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, which are closely related to the continuous promotion of socialist legal construction.

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, the CPC Central Committee insisted on prevention and control according to law. All departments in various regions made full efforts in legislation, law enforcement, judicature, law popularization and law-abiding and strictly implemented regional blockade, patient isolation, traffic control and other measures in strict accordance with the legal authority and procedures. In the field of system, we should make up the weak points and provide a strong legal guarantee for achieving major strategic achievements in epidemic prevention and control.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a comprehensive plan to uphold and improve the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Law is an important tool for governing the country. The rule of law is an important support for the national governance system and governance capacity. The socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics is the backbone project of the national governance system. To build a modern socialist country in an all-round way, we must strengthen the party’s centralized and unified leadership over the rule of law in an all-round way. We should unswervingly follow the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and speed up the formation of a complete system of legal norms, an efficient system for the implementation of the rule of law, a strict system of supervision over the rule of law, and a strong legal guarantee system, so as to speed up the formation of a sound inner-party legal system. To give full play to the guarantee role of the rule of law in consolidating the foundation, stabilizing the expectations and promoting the long-term interests, we should take into account the domestic and international situation, the process of building the rule of law and the needs of the people. We should confirm and consolidate the fundamental system, basic system and important system supporting the socialist system with Chinese characteristics through the Constitution and law. To build the foundation of the rule of law, implement the force of the rule of law, and accumulate the momentum of the rule of law, we should promote the maturity and finalization of various systems and provide a long-term institutional guarantee for the development of the party and the state.

Rooted in Chinese historical tradition and practical experience

The development of the rule of law in a country is closely related to its historical tradition and practical practice. The road of rule of law has distinct characteristics of inheritance, nationality, localization and times. The path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics is rooted in 5000 years of cultural tradition. It is rooted in the historical process of revolution, construction and reform, and rooted in China's national governance practice with both particularity and complexity, which is the result of long-term economic and social development and endogenous evolution.

The formulation of Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China is a typical example of sticking to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. The Civil Code has absorbed the essence of the traditional culture of the rule of law of the Chinese nation. It systematically integrated the civil legal norms formed by long-term practice since the founding of the people's Republic of China, and learned from the beneficial achievements of the construction of human legal civilization, showing distinct Chinese characteristics, practical characteristics and characteristics of the times. For example, in terms of style and structure, Chinese Civil Code does not adopt the classic “three compilation” or “five compilation” system of civil law countries, but consists of seven parts: general provisions, property rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and tort liability. The system of personality right, the independent compilation of tort liability and the establishment of contract centralism are all the system innovations of our civil code. In terms of content, the exemption of emergency rescue in the general provisions of the civil code, the statutory emergency relief obligation in the personality rights section, the voluntary assistance obligation in the Tort Code, and the friendship and mutual assistance obligation in the marriage and family compilation all highlight the socialist core values. At the same time, Chinese Civil Code takes resource conservation and ecological environment protection as the basic principles for the first time in the world. It standardizes the protection of data and network virtual property and establishes the bottom line rules for human gene and human embryo scientific research activities, which responds to the problems of the times brought about by objective practice such as environmental protection and technological progress.

Under the background of entering a new stage of development, implementing the new development concept and building a new development pattern, with the improvement of the maturity of the market economy and the modernization of national governance, the market activities and social life in China in the future will continue to breed legal rules and institutional logic. Therefore, we must insist on proceeding from China's national conditions and reality, correctly interpret China’s reality, answer China's questions, and constantly explore the road of rule of law suitable for ourselves in practice.

Learn from the beneficial achievements of foreign countries in the rule of law

Sticking to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics does not mean being complacent. On the premise of basic national conditions and adhering to basic principles, we need to actively absorb and learn from the world’s outstanding achievements in the rule of law. At the same time, we should selectively absorb and transform them. We should not blindly swallow the date and copy them. We should never follow the so-called “constitutionalism”, “separation of three powers” and “judicial independence” in the West.

Since the reform and opening up, Chinaese legal education has widely used the lawyer centered vocational education model of the United States, the case teaching mode of German judge centrism, and the mode of combining general education with professional education in Japan in terms of the training mode and teaching methods of legal talents in China. Remarkable achievements have been made in knowledge transfer and skill training, and a number of legal professionals have been trained. At the same time, we should also see that the cultivation of talents under the rule of law can’t deviate from the fundamental direction of the socialist road with Chinese characteristics. As the first position of legal personnel training, colleges and universities should take me as the main position, absorb and highlight the characteristics, deeply study and solve the problems of who to teach, what to teach, whom to teach, and how to teach, focusing on the subject system, academic system, discourse system, teaching material system and other aspects to show Chinese characteristics and Chinese style. In the specific link of training legal talents, we must adhere to the reality of education, lay a solid foundation of disciplines, pay attention to comparative identification, deal with the relationship between knowledge teaching and practical teaching, strengthen the communication among law educators, researchers and practical workers, and strengthen young students' recognition of the socialist road of rule of law with Chinese characteristics through the vivid practice of the rule of law in China. We should cultivate outstanding talents with both moral and legal education.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “to comprehensively promote the rule of law, we must follow the right path” and “there are dozens of achievements in the construction of the rule of law in China, but in a word, it is the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics”. In order to deeply study and implement Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law, we must firmly grasp the core meaning of adhering to the socialist road of rule of law with Chinese characteristics. We should fully understand the internal logic of the road of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and fully develop the advantages of the socialist road of rule of law with Chinese characteristics. We should further consolidate the institutional foundation of the rule of law in China and ensure the stability and long-term development of the socialist modern country in an all-round way.

Translated by: Wu Qiliang

Edited by: Xu Mengyao