I. Historical Course of Building a Socialist Country under the Rule of Law
China has a 5,000-year history of civilization. And the Chinese legal system goes back to ancient times. As early as in the 21st century BC, consuetudinary law appeared in China's slave society. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770-221 BC), written law was promulgated in China, and a systematic written code of laws appeared. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China had a fairly complete code of feudal laws, which was passed on and developed in the following feudal dynasties. The Chinese system of law emerged as a unique one in the world. Ancient China made significant contributions to the legal civilization of mankind.
After the Opium War broke out in 1840, China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. To obliterate the sufferings of the country and rejuvenate the Chinese nation, people with lofty ideals tried to transplant to China modes of the rule of law from modern Western countries, but failed for various historical reasons.
Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people, after revolution, construction, reform and development, gradually took the road of building a socialist country under the rule of law.
The founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 ushered in a new era for China's promotion of the rule of law. The period from 1949 to the mid-1950s was the period when China's socialist legal system was first set up. In this period, China promulgated the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in the character of an interim constitution, and some other laws and decrees, which played an important role in consolidating the new-born political power, maintaining social order and reviving the national economy. In 1954, at the First Session of the First National People's Congress (NPC), the Constitution of the People's Republic of China was promulgated. The Constitution and other laws enacted later defined China's political and economic systems, citizen's rights and freedom, set the standards for the organizational structure, functions and powers of state organs, and established the basic principles for China's legal system, thus initially laying the foundation for the rule of law in China. From the late 1950s, and especially during the chaotic period of the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), China's socialist legal system was severely damaged.
At the end of the 1970s, the CPC, after summarizing historical experiences, and especially learning painful lessons from the "cultural revolution," made an important decision to shift the focus of national work to socialist modernization, and adopted the policies of reform and opening-up. It also made clear the importance of the principle of governing the country by law. To guarantee democracy for the people, it is necessary to strengthen the socialist legal system, institutionalize democracy and make laws to ensure democracy. The goal was to make the system and laws stable, consistent and authoritative - not changing with changes of state leaders or state leaders' opinions or attention - and achieve the goal of having laws to go by, laws that must be observed and strictly enforced, and lawbreakers prosecuted. This was set up as the basic idea for the rule of law in the new era of reform and opening-up. Under the guidance of the basic principle of developing socialist democracy and improving the socialist legal system, China promulgated the present Constitution and basic laws, such as the Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Civil Procedure Law, General Principles of the Civil Law and Administrative Procedure Law, ushering in a new development stage of the rule of law.
In the 1990s, China started to promote the development of a socialist market economy in an all-round way, further laying the economic foundation and putting forward higher demands for the rule of law. In 1997, the 15th CPC National Congress decided to make "the rule of law" a basic strategy and "building a socialist country under the rule of law" an important goal for socialist modernization, and put forward the significant task of building a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. In 1999, "the People's Republic of China exercises the rule of law, building a socialist country governed according to law" was added to the Constitution, ushering in a new chapter in China's efforts to promote the rule of law.
Entering the 21st century, China is continuing this undertaking. In 2002, the 16th CPC National Congress decided to take further improvement of the socialist democracy and socialist legal system, comprehensive implementation of the rule of law as important goals for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. In 2004, "the state respects and guarantees human rights" was included in the Constitution. In 2007, the 17th CPC National Congress expressly called for comprehensively implementing the fundamental principle of rule of the country by law and speeding up the building of a socialist country under the rule of law, and made arrangements for strengthening the rule of law in an all-round way.
Over almost six decades since its founding, especially during 30 years since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policies, China has made tremendous achievements in promoting the rule of law in its great task of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.