Positive role of rule of law must be given full play

President Xi Jinping has said on many occasions that as the country moves forward the rule of law must be further advanced. In major remarks on the Constitution, reform and opening-up, innovation-driven development, and ecological advancement, as well as in the requirements he has put forward for the legislative and oversight work of the National People’s Congress, he has called for improving the country’s laws and the legal framework to improve national governance.

On Tuesday, speaking at a conference of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on comprehensively advancing the rule of law, Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, once again called for giving full play to the positive role of the rule of law in order to promote the modernization of the national governance system.

Practice has proved that consolidating the fundamental and important systems of the country through the Constitution and laws, and ensuring their implementation guarantees a systematic, standardized, coordinated and stable national governance system.

But with the development of the times and the advancement of reforms, it is necessary, as Xi said, to continue to innovate and modernize the national governance practice and speed up improvement of the legal system.

That must be done starting from the reality of the country and with the aim of addressing prominent concerns.

Which means improving the laws for State institutions and organizations in accordance with the plan for deepening institutional reform, and following through on the top-level policies for deepening market-based reforms and expanding opening-up with high-quality legislation.

It means expediting legislation for public well-being and ecological and environmental protection.

It also means demonstrating efficiency and fairness in enforcing the law.

As Xi said, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of law enforcement to ensure it is strict, fair, civilized and credible.

Promoting and ensuring the implementation of major decisions and arrangements through legislation, guaranteeing that major reforms have a legal basis, and accelerating legislation in the economic sector will consolidate the foundation of China’s modern governance.

And better transforming the rule of law into national governance efficiency by strengthening and improving the legal guarantees for reform, opening-up and stability will ensure the country is comprehensively governed according to the law and so give full play to the positive role of the law in the country’s modern governance.

In doing so, China will also be better able to contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the reform and construction of the global governance system.