Dameisha Forum/Forum Opinions/Set Things Right and Rule the Country by its Constitution for Better Political Civilization
Set Things Right and Rule the Country by its Constitution for Better Political Civilization
Author： Source： Date：2017-09-01
Respected professionals, scholars, guests, Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
The Reform and Opening-up initiated in the late 1970s in China meant a great innovation in the state’s governance. The establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone indicated that the country had started exploring a new path in terms of governance structure. The Zone is a signal of innovation, without which, there would be no the “Tale of the Spring” or the SZ Special Zone. Today’s China requires new idea, driving force for innovation and new institution. President Xi Jinping at the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Committee elaborated the connotation of the “Rule by law” and for the first time proposed the governance idea of “Rule by the Constitution”. I believe that the first Dameisha China Innovation Forum that gathers top-class professionals will follow the direction given in the Session and make contribution to the further national development in coming years.
By far China’s history is the history of “ruling by people”. It is one of the distinctive features of China’s traditional culture. The idea of “rule by people” is deeply rooted in the cultural genes of the country, and used to bring the nation to prosperity several times in ancient times. However, the cycle continued for a long while and finally proved to become a cultural defect in modern times, resulting in the China’s difficulty in turning to the governance mode of democracy and the law-based ruling. Therefore, the state experienced failures and dilemma for a long time until the Reform and Opening-up when the core of the law-based modern governance was still not well understood. I believe that the deep driving force of the Reform had been in China’s society for years. It needed an opportunity, and an impetus. Later came the end of the Cultural Revolution, brought by the campaign of “Setting Things Right”, without which, political mistakes like the Cultural Revolution might re-occur. The authority indeed used to consider launching the similar political movements every 7-8 years. It was the campaign that corrected this wrong idea, and helped the whole country get rid of social unrest, put it on the right track and release its great potential. The Reform started a high-speed economic growth for over 30 years, and drove the state to rank the second place in terms of economic aggregate in the world.
We made great achievements at heavy cost. We used to declare at the beginning of the Reform that China will definitely not go polarization in wealth growth or follow the path of “pollution before environment improvement thanks to the superiority of socialistic institution.” However, our institution remains the same over the past three decades and what about the wealth gap and pollution now? The facts speak, right? It seems that the theoretically advanced institution as socialism also suffers incapability in solving some key social issues. I think the reason is that we have not been on the track of “rule by law and rule by the Constitution” yet. The defects like “power over law, and favor over law” have been intervening China during its rapid economic development.
The idea proposed in the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Committee highlighting the rule by law should be based on the rule by the Constitution. The governance by law shall be first the governance by the Constitution, which has released a strong signal of “setting things right”. It will directly determine whether the rule by the Constitution specified in the resolution could be truly realized and recognized by the public and be a milestone of China’s political civilization.
The first thing to do is to correct the misunderstanding of “the Constitution is metaphysical”, and set up its absolute authority nationwide. The Constitution is the fundamental charter of a country, the framework of its governance, and the rule by the Constitution is the core of the rule by law. China’s Constitution is less well enforced due to some reasons. People are lack of awe and respect to the Constitution. Some officials violated it without openly, abused their power and deliberately broke the law, and a number of wrong decisions were made without being investigated. The Constitution failed to serve as remedy from time to time when the fundamental rights of citizens were infringed. What the former President Liu Shaoqi suffered is a typical case. What is more, some officials, when coping with harsh contradiction and group incidents, claimed that too much power was given to common people. The dignity of rule by law comes from the control of public power, and the control of government and officials. As President Xi highlighted, “the power shall be put into the cage of regulation”. In addition, the rights of citizens shall be protected, and the whole society shall be included in a designed governance system. The Rule by the Constitution shall be first strictly carried out by the ruling party and its officials, which helps develop and establish the spirit of constitution. The misunderstanding of “rule by law equals rule by people” prevailing among officials must be removed. All the regulations and systems that are not consistent with the Constitution shall be cleared out, too. Malpractices in governance and administration detected shall be seriously investigated for legal liabilities.
The second is to get rid of the outdated idea of “power over law” and create the enforcement environment featuring judicial independence and justice. As Karl Marx pointed, “judges have no other superior but the law, and independent judges are controlled by neither individual nor government”. This remark indicates the independent justice is not unique in the capitalism system, but is a fundamental principle of countries with various social systems, and the premise and safeguard of judicial justice. It is the basic knowledge of politics and the core of the “rule by law”, and shall not be treated as sensitive issue. The Party needs to carry out the principle in the entire process of the rule by law. Officials of political organizations shall manage without intervening individual cases, as there have been serious lessons. The key to enhance the Party’s administration on judicial system is to push forward the judicial reform as the critical program for the “rule by law”. The trial-based litigation system shall ensure the procuratorate independence and the court independence. At the 4th Plenary Session, “to set records for case settlement in officials’ intervention of judicial activities, to report such cases and investigate liabilities” were proposed, so as to effectively curb public power abuse or illegal behaviors for the benefit of relatives or friends, and prohibit misbehaviors. We need to raise the awareness of using power according to law, and it is our way to show people the superiority of “the rule by law with Chinese characteristics”.
The third thing is to remove the idea of class revolution and the GPD-oriented mindset, and to reach the consensus based on the rule by law. President Xi recently gave the instruction in building safe communities that conflicts and problems shall be addressed based on law and law-based approaches. I think that we need to change the two typical non-law-based ideas: revolution and class struggle, and the GDP-oriented mindset. Instead of turning to laws and regulations, some officials tend to launch class struggle rather than turning to judicial system, which resulted in violent social stability safeguard incidents including frequent violation of the Construction, illegal demolition, enclosure, prevention on petition, and arrest without solid reason. These cases intensified the internal conflict and are easy to lead to unrest. The latter believes that the solution to wealth gap is the GDP increase. In fact we have making great achievements in economic growth and China’s GDP is now ranking the 2nd place in the world. However, the gap is still increasing. The China’s society is diversified, and people from different class, cultural background, or religion are entitled to exercise their legal rights without infringing those of others. Harmonious coexistence requires public rules. The best way to seek the greatest common divisor is the law representing fairness and justice.
The fourth is to rebuild the dignity of lawyer as profession, correct the wrongly judge cases and investigate for liabilities. Being a lawyer used to be the dream of many students, as the role is a key part of judicial system. The lawyer’s defense ensures the justice to be done, and less wrongly judge cases occur. The profession should be admired and respected. But in today’s China, people’s understanding of the lawyer system is deviated or even distorted. For instance, the public security, the procuratorate and court system repels and suppresses lawyers, and even deems the defense attorney for criminal suspect appointed by legal procedure as suspect, trying to throw them out of the court. I believe that the self-respect of lawyers, the industry discipline and respect-based enforcement is the premise. “We are the ones working in fear and trembling”, as described by some practicing lawyers in China when talking about their work environment. It is, in my view, the sorrow of the society. Only working with no fear indicates the rule by law. To remove the rule by people and respect law is the way to empower the state’s legislation system, and makes its lawyers respectable working with dignity. What we need to do right now is to rebuild the dignity of justice in China by correcting wrongly judged cases and getting people truly convinced.
It is no doubt that the rule by the Constitution and the rule by law will drive China to a new development mode. The future is promising, and the transition would be arduous as the huge historical inertia running the society for thousands of years may not be removed within a short period of time. We have to be sober, brave, fair and persistent enough to shoulder our historic missions. Our goal is to fully carry out the rule by the Constitution by 2020 so as to be recognized by the public. We are confident that by 2049 we will be capable for sharing our experience in building innovative and established political civilization with other countries in the world.
I would like to recall what happened when the SZ special zone was built before ending my speech. The then President Hu Yaobang, when the zone was first built 31 years ago, wrote a motto, saying “special solutions to special situations, new solutions to new situations, and addressing issues with innovated approaches without changing our standpoint”. This motto reflected the Party and its people’s will to reform, and indicated the wise thoughts. It has been widely heard as the strongest voice of setting things right by the whole country. Now when the rule by law and rule by the Constitution are highlighted as part of the national governance methodology, I heard motto again. It witnesses the continuingly carried reform spirit of the Party over the past three decades. I am looking forward to the rule by the Constitution being the principle of the Party, law respect and compliance being the faith and lifestyle shared by Chinese people. I expect it to help promote the better political civilization step by step and thus a better China to all of us.
Thank you!
Good morning!
The Reform and Opening-up initiated in the late 1970s in China meant a great innovation in the state’s governance. The establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone indicated that the country had started exploring a new path in terms of governance structure. The Zone is a signal of innovation, without which, there would be no the “Tale of the Spring” or the SZ Special Zone. Today’s China requires new idea, driving force for innovation and new institution. President Xi Jinping at the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Committee elaborated the connotation of the “Rule by law” and for the first time proposed the governance idea of “Rule by the Constitution”. I believe that the first Dameisha China Innovation Forum that gathers top-class professionals will follow the direction given in the Session and make contribution to the further national development in coming years.
By far China’s history is the history of “ruling by people”. It is one of the distinctive features of China’s traditional culture. The idea of “rule by people” is deeply rooted in the cultural genes of the country, and used to bring the nation to prosperity several times in ancient times. However, the cycle continued for a long while and finally proved to become a cultural defect in modern times, resulting in the China’s difficulty in turning to the governance mode of democracy and the law-based ruling. Therefore, the state experienced failures and dilemma for a long time until the Reform and Opening-up when the core of the law-based modern governance was still not well understood. I believe that the deep driving force of the Reform had been in China’s society for years. It needed an opportunity, and an impetus. Later came the end of the Cultural Revolution, brought by the campaign of “Setting Things Right”, without which, political mistakes like the Cultural Revolution might re-occur. The authority indeed used to consider launching the similar political movements every 7-8 years. It was the campaign that corrected this wrong idea, and helped the whole country get rid of social unrest, put it on the right track and release its great potential. The Reform started a high-speed economic growth for over 30 years, and drove the state to rank the second place in terms of economic aggregate in the world.
We made great achievements at heavy cost. We used to declare at the beginning of the Reform that China will definitely not go polarization in wealth growth or follow the path of “pollution before environment improvement thanks to the superiority of socialistic institution.” However, our institution remains the same over the past three decades and what about the wealth gap and pollution now? The facts speak, right? It seems that the theoretically advanced institution as socialism also suffers incapability in solving some key social issues. I think the reason is that we have not been on the track of “rule by law and rule by the Constitution” yet. The defects like “power over law, and favor over law” have been intervening China during its rapid economic development.
The idea proposed in the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Committee highlighting the rule by law should be based on the rule by the Constitution. The governance by law shall be first the governance by the Constitution, which has released a strong signal of “setting things right”. It will directly determine whether the rule by the Constitution specified in the resolution could be truly realized and recognized by the public and be a milestone of China’s political civilization.
The first thing to do is to correct the misunderstanding of “the Constitution is metaphysical”, and set up its absolute authority nationwide. The Constitution is the fundamental charter of a country, the framework of its governance, and the rule by the Constitution is the core of the rule by law. China’s Constitution is less well enforced due to some reasons. People are lack of awe and respect to the Constitution. Some officials violated it without openly, abused their power and deliberately broke the law, and a number of wrong decisions were made without being investigated. The Constitution failed to serve as remedy from time to time when the fundamental rights of citizens were infringed. What the former President Liu Shaoqi suffered is a typical case. What is more, some officials, when coping with harsh contradiction and group incidents, claimed that too much power was given to common people. The dignity of rule by law comes from the control of public power, and the control of government and officials. As President Xi highlighted, “the power shall be put into the cage of regulation”. In addition, the rights of citizens shall be protected, and the whole society shall be included in a designed governance system. The Rule by the Constitution shall be first strictly carried out by the ruling party and its officials, which helps develop and establish the spirit of constitution. The misunderstanding of “rule by law equals rule by people” prevailing among officials must be removed. All the regulations and systems that are not consistent with the Constitution shall be cleared out, too. Malpractices in governance and administration detected shall be seriously investigated for legal liabilities.
The second is to get rid of the outdated idea of “power over law” and create the enforcement environment featuring judicial independence and justice. As Karl Marx pointed, “judges have no other superior but the law, and independent judges are controlled by neither individual nor government”. This remark indicates the independent justice is not unique in the capitalism system, but is a fundamental principle of countries with various social systems, and the premise and safeguard of judicial justice. It is the basic knowledge of politics and the core of the “rule by law”, and shall not be treated as sensitive issue. The Party needs to carry out the principle in the entire process of the rule by law. Officials of political organizations shall manage without intervening individual cases, as there have been serious lessons. The key to enhance the Party’s administration on judicial system is to push forward the judicial reform as the critical program for the “rule by law”. The trial-based litigation system shall ensure the procuratorate independence and the court independence. At the 4th Plenary Session, “to set records for case settlement in officials’ intervention of judicial activities, to report such cases and investigate liabilities” were proposed, so as to effectively curb public power abuse or illegal behaviors for the benefit of relatives or friends, and prohibit misbehaviors. We need to raise the awareness of using power according to law, and it is our way to show people the superiority of “the rule by law with Chinese characteristics”.
The third thing is to remove the idea of class revolution and the GPD-oriented mindset, and to reach the consensus based on the rule by law. President Xi recently gave the instruction in building safe communities that conflicts and problems shall be addressed based on law and law-based approaches. I think that we need to change the two typical non-law-based ideas: revolution and class struggle, and the GDP-oriented mindset. Instead of turning to laws and regulations, some officials tend to launch class struggle rather than turning to judicial system, which resulted in violent social stability safeguard incidents including frequent violation of the Construction, illegal demolition, enclosure, prevention on petition, and arrest without solid reason. These cases intensified the internal conflict and are easy to lead to unrest. The latter believes that the solution to wealth gap is the GDP increase. In fact we have making great achievements in economic growth and China’s GDP is now ranking the 2nd place in the world. However, the gap is still increasing. The China’s society is diversified, and people from different class, cultural background, or religion are entitled to exercise their legal rights without infringing those of others. Harmonious coexistence requires public rules. The best way to seek the greatest common divisor is the law representing fairness and justice.
The fourth is to rebuild the dignity of lawyer as profession, correct the wrongly judge cases and investigate for liabilities. Being a lawyer used to be the dream of many students, as the role is a key part of judicial system. The lawyer’s defense ensures the justice to be done, and less wrongly judge cases occur. The profession should be admired and respected. But in today’s China, people’s understanding of the lawyer system is deviated or even distorted. For instance, the public security, the procuratorate and court system repels and suppresses lawyers, and even deems the defense attorney for criminal suspect appointed by legal procedure as suspect, trying to throw them out of the court. I believe that the self-respect of lawyers, the industry discipline and respect-based enforcement is the premise. “We are the ones working in fear and trembling”, as described by some practicing lawyers in China when talking about their work environment. It is, in my view, the sorrow of the society. Only working with no fear indicates the rule by law. To remove the rule by people and respect law is the way to empower the state’s legislation system, and makes its lawyers respectable working with dignity. What we need to do right now is to rebuild the dignity of justice in China by correcting wrongly judged cases and getting people truly convinced.
It is no doubt that the rule by the Constitution and the rule by law will drive China to a new development mode. The future is promising, and the transition would be arduous as the huge historical inertia running the society for thousands of years may not be removed within a short period of time. We have to be sober, brave, fair and persistent enough to shoulder our historic missions. Our goal is to fully carry out the rule by the Constitution by 2020 so as to be recognized by the public. We are confident that by 2049 we will be capable for sharing our experience in building innovative and established political civilization with other countries in the world.
I would like to recall what happened when the SZ special zone was built before ending my speech. The then President Hu Yaobang, when the zone was first built 31 years ago, wrote a motto, saying “special solutions to special situations, new solutions to new situations, and addressing issues with innovated approaches without changing our standpoint”. This motto reflected the Party and its people’s will to reform, and indicated the wise thoughts. It has been widely heard as the strongest voice of setting things right by the whole country. Now when the rule by law and rule by the Constitution are highlighted as part of the national governance methodology, I heard motto again. It witnesses the continuingly carried reform spirit of the Party over the past three decades. I am looking forward to the rule by the Constitution being the principle of the Party, law respect and compliance being the faith and lifestyle shared by Chinese people. I expect it to help promote the better political civilization step by step and thus a better China to all of us.
Thank you!
