Fu Zitang: On the Soul of the Rule of Law—Studying Xi Jinping's Discourse on the Fundamental Guarantee of the Rule of Law
The leadership of the Party is the soul of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and the fundamental guarantee for advancing the comprehensive law-based governance of the country.
The Central Conference on Work Related to Overall Law-based Governance, convened in November 2020 (Note: original text lists 2025, likely a typo for 2020), clarified that Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law is centrally embodied in the "Twelve Persistences." The first of these is persisting in the Party's leadership over the comprehensive law-based governance of the country. This profoundly answers major questions such as why socialist rule of law must persist in Party leadership and how to persist in and strengthen that leadership, pointing the way forward for advancing the law-based governance of the country on the new journey.
I
To do a good job in managing China's affairs, the key lies with the Party. Party, government, military, society, and education; east, west, south, north, and center—the Party leads everything [1]. Persisting in the leadership of the Party is the fundamental reason why the Chinese people embarked on the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and why our cause of the rule of law has been able to achieve great successes; it is the most fundamental guarantee for the continuous attainment of even greater achievements in socialist rule of law.
From the perspective of historical logic, Party leadership is the fundamental prerequisite for achieving national independence and national development, as well as a basic experience in the construction of our socialist rule of law. Since the beginning of the modern era, some people of vision attempted to transplant Western models of the rule of law. However, due to the lack of a strong leadership core, coupled with factors such as a lack of adaptation to local conditions, social upheaval, and external interference, these attempts all ended in failure. Practice has proven that not all political forces can effectively integrate the social resources required for the construction of the rule of law, coalesce social consensus, and thereby achieve "good laws and good governance" (良法善治). From the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has attached great importance to the construction of the rule of law. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, our Party established the Chinese Soviet Republic in the Jiangxi Central Soviet Area, beginning the exploration of the construction of national and legal systems. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Party led the people in formulating a series of important laws and regulations, established the framework of the socialist legal system, and consolidated the socialist judicial system. During the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, our Party profoundly summarized both positive and negative experiences, established the basic strategy of "governing the country according to law" (依法治国), set the construction of a socialist rule of law state as an important goal of socialist modernization, and gradually formed the system of socialist laws with Chinese characteristics with the Constitution at its core. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has incorporated the comprehensive law-based governance of the country into the "Four Comprehensives" strategic layout, advancing it with vigor. The general pattern of comprehensive law-based governance has basically taken shape, and the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics has grown broader and broader. History eloquently proves that without the leadership of the CPC, there would be no development or progress in China’s cause of the rule of law, a socialist rule of law state could not be built, and comprehensive law-based governance could not be effectively advanced.
From the perspective of jurisprudential basis, the Party's leadership status is not self-appointed; it is expressly stipulated by our country's Constitution and centrally reflects the unified will and common aspirations of the Party and the people. General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly pointed out: "Our Constitution, in the form of the fundamental law, reflects the achievements made by the Party in leading the people to carry out revolution, construction, and reform, and establishes the leadership status of the CPC formed through the choice of history and the people." As the highest expression of the national will, the Constitution confirms the Party's core status in "overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties" (总揽全局、协调各方) within the structure of state power, providing the fundamental legal basis for persisting in Party leadership and guaranteeing the Party's long-term governance. Anyone using any excuse to deny the leadership of the CPC is fundamentally violating the Constitution. General Secretary Xi Jinping further revealed that the Constitution's confirmation of the CPC's leadership status is the most prominent feature of our country's Constitution. Persisting in law-based governance of the country and law-based exercise of state power [2] based on the Constitution includes unswervingly persisting in the leadership status of the CPC as determined by the Constitution.
From the perspective of practical development, the fundamental reason why comprehensive law-based governance can be effectively advanced is that we have always persisted in the leadership of the Party. When analyzing the immense advantages manifested in practice by the state and legal systems of socialism with Chinese characteristics, General Secretary Xi Jinping specifically emphasized the advantage of persisting in Party leadership, profoundly noting: "It is precisely because we are always under the leadership of the Party, concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks [3], and because the state uniformly and effectively organizes various undertakings and carries out various tasks, that we have been able to successfully respond to a series of major risks and challenges, overcome countless hardships and obstacles, and steadily advance along the correct direction." The Party oversees the overall situation and coordinates all parties; the People's Congresses, the government, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the supervisory organs, the trial organs (courts), and the procuratorial organs (prosecutors), under the unified leadership of the Party, each take their place, perform their functions, fulfill their responsibilities, and coordinate in an orderly manner. This has formed a leadership system and organizational mechanism for comprehensive law-based governance characterized by unified orders, smooth operation, efficient execution, and great vitality, gathering the tectonic strength of comprehensive law-based governance.
II
The relationship between the Party and the law is the central topic of Chinese legal theory and the fundamental question that the construction of the rule of law must address. In both theoretical circles and practice, there were once blurred or even erroneous understandings regarding this issue. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The relationship between the Party and the law is a fundamental issue; if handled well, the rule of law flourishes, the Party flourishes, and the country flourishes; if handled poorly, the rule of law declines, the Party declines, and the country declines." He added, "The Party and the law, and the Party's leadership and the law-based governance of the country, are highly unified." Profoundly revealing the intrinsic link between the Party-law relationship and the destiny of the nation, and elucidating how to scientifically understand and correctly handle this relationship, constitutes a major theoretical innovation of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law.
It has cleared away the erroneous understanding of "whether the Party is greater or the law is greater." Since the beginning of reform and opening up, some Western legal concepts have entered our country. Some people blindly fetishize the Western "separation of powers" model, one-sidedly emphasizing the so-called "purity" of legislation, law enforcement, and the judiciary, and one-sidedly emphasizing the so-called "opposition" between judicial independence and Party leadership, creating a binary opposition in the public sphere over "whether the Party is greater or the law is greater." This logic presupposes that the Party and the law are two zero-sum, mutually exclusive subjects. Its essence is an intent to sever and oppose Party leadership and the rule of law, ultimately aiming to deny the leadership of the Party and the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is ideologically erroneous and politically dangerous. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out with clear banners: "'Whether the Party is greater or the law is greater' is a political trap and a pseudo-proposition." The reason this problem does not exist is that the Party is regarded as a governing whole, referring to its status as the governing and leading force, which is confirmed by the Constitution. Specifically, every Party and government organization and every leading official must submit to and abide by the Constitution and the law; they cannot identify themselves as 'the Party' and use Party leadership as a shield for "substituting the law with their own words" (以言代法), "suppressing the law with power" (以权压法), or "perverting the law for private gain" (徇私枉法). The very way of asking "whether the Party is greater or the law is greater" not only makes it impossible to reach a correct answer but also falls into a political trap deliberately dug by those with ulterior motives. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on the relationship between the Party and the law provide the guidance for persisting in and strengthening the Party's leadership over comprehensive law-based governance, ensuring the steady and long-term progress of construction of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.
It has clarified that the leadership of the Party is the most essential feature of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. The leadership of the Party is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the greatest advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the most fundamental guarantee of socialist rule of law. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that the leadership of the Party is the biggest difference between our rule of law and the rule of law in Western capitalist countries. From the perspective of the economic base, the rule of law in Western capitalist countries is, in essence, a tool for maintaining the rule of capital built upon the foundation of bourgeois private ownership; its party politics often degenerate into a field of play for interest groups. In contrast, our socialist rule of law is built upon an economic base where public ownership is the mainstay and multiple forms of ownership develop together; it maintains the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people. As the faithful representative of the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, the Party’s leadership status is highly consistent with the value pursuits of the rule of law. From the perspective of institutional efficacy, the policy swings brought about by the rotation of Western bourgeois parties in power easily cause ruptures in the legal system and deviations in legal implementation, greatly discounting the stability and authority of the law. Meanwhile, our persistence in the Party’s centralized and unified leadership has anchored the fundamental direction and provided a solid guarantee for the construction of socialist rule of law.
It has revealed the intrinsic unity of Party leadership and socialist rule of law. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Party leadership and socialist rule of law are consistent; socialist rule of law must persist in Party leadership, and Party leadership must rely on socialist rule of law." The Party leads the people in formulating the Constitution and laws, the Party leads the people in implementing the Constitution and laws, and the Party itself must operate within the scope of the Constitution and laws. Integrating the persistence in Party leadership, the people as masters of the country, and the law-based governance of the country is a basic experience of our socialist rule of law construction. On one hand, socialist rule of law must persist in Party leadership. Only by governing the country and strictly practicing the rule of law under the leadership of the Party can the people's status as masters of the country be fully realized, and the legalization of national and social life be promoted in an orderly manner. On the other hand, Party leadership must rely on socialist rule of law. Our Party is the world’s largest governing party, leading a global power with a population of over 1.4 billion. To hold power well, govern well, and better organize and mobilize the entire people, we must persist in the comprehensive law-based governance of the country.
III
Persisting in and strengthening the Party's leadership over the comprehensive law-based governance of the country is an inherent requirement for coordinating and integrating resources and forces from all sides to advance modernization and guarantee the long-term peace and stability of the Party and the state. General Secretary Xi Jinping has provided in-depth elaborations on how to make Party leadership institutionalized, legalized, and standardized, and how to improve the institutions and work mechanisms of Party leadership over comprehensive law-based governance, providing scientific guidance for building a higher-level socialist rule of law state under the Party's leadership.
Strengthen the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership over the construction of a Law-based China. Persisting in Party leadership starts with persisting in the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Since the New Era, the Party Central Committee has established the Central Committee for Comprehensive Law-based Governance to coordinate and advance the work of comprehensive law-based governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the Committee must manage the macro-level, plan for the overall situation, and grasp major affairs, both solving current prominent problems and planning for long-term work. The innovation in organizational setup has solved problems in the construction of the rule of law such as multi-headed management, scattered focus, and ineffective coordination. For example, in legislative coordination involving multiple departments and fields, and in the oversight of major, difficult, and complex cases, the Central Committee for Comprehensive Law-based Governance plays the role of a "stabilizing needle" (定海神针). To open a new chapter in the construction of a Law-based China, we must persist in and strengthen the central-level coordination of reforms in the field of the rule of law, more forcefully promote the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments, and coordinately advance the construction of the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and a socialist rule of law state.
Implement Party leadership throughout the entire process and in all aspects of comprehensive law-based governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Persisting in Party leadership is not an empty slogan; it must be specifically reflected in the Party leading legislation, guaranteeing law enforcement, supporting the judiciary, and taking the lead in abiding by the law." He added, "Leading officials specifically exercise the Party's governing power and the state's legislative, administrative, supervisory, and judicial powers; they are the key to the comprehensive law-based governance of the country." At the legislative level, the Party leading legislation does not mean the Party takes over specific legislative work, but rather that it leads by holding firm to the political direction of legislation. For example, during the formulation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, facing national security risks, the Party Central Committee made a decisive decision and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress moved quickly to legislate, filling a legal gap and effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests. This fully reflected the Party's role in "setting the course and checking the gates" (定向把关) for major legislative work. At the law enforcement level, on one hand, by creating a work environment for law enforcers characterized by law-based duty performance, clear powers and responsibilities, and forced guarantees, we ensure that enforcement agencies enforce the law according to the law; on the other hand, by coordinating special enforcement actions, the construction of enforcement standardization, and the assessment of enforcement work, we ensure that enforcement agencies perform strict, standardized, impartial, and civilized law enforcement. At the judicial level, the Party's leadership involves managing direction, policy, principles, and cadres; it does not take over specific affairs. Leading officials cannot, in the name of the Party's leadership over political and legal work, perform improper interference in the work of judicial organs. At the level of abiding by the law, the entire Party acting within the scope of the Constitution and the law is a high degree of self-awareness of our Party and a specific manifestation of persisting in Party leadership. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee has organized multiple collective study sessions on the theme of the rule of law, requiring the Party's leading officials to be models of respecting, learning, abiding by, and using the law. Party committees at all levels attach importance to rule-of-law training, improving law-learning systems, and enhancing the rule-of-law literacy of officials, creating a sound social atmosphere where people act according to the law, look for the law when encountering issues, use the law to solve problems, and rely on the law to resolve conflicts. The key to persisting in and strengthening Party leadership is to ensure that in every link—legislation, law enforcement, the judiciary, and abiding by the law—Party leadership is treated as the political soul, the primary principle, and the fundamental guarantee.
Advance the institutionalization, legalization, and standardization of Party leadership. To correctly handle the relationship between Party policy and national law, we must be adept at turning the Party’s propositions into the national will and forming laws through statutory procedures, and guaranteeing the effective implementation of Party policies through the law. The Regulations on the Communist Party of China’s Leadership over Comprehensive Law-based Governance, reviewed by the Political Bureau of the 20th Party Central Committee, transform the decisions, deployments, ideas, concepts, systems, mechanisms, and successful practices of the Party’s long-term leadership over the comprehensive law-based governance of the country into institutional achievements. This is of great significance for improving the Party's ability to govern the country according to law and exercise state power according to law, and for building a more perfect system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and a higher-level socialist rule of law state. The key to institutions and norms playing their role lies in execution. To implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, we must continuously improve the Party's leadership and governing methods, raise the Party's ability and level in leading the law-based governance of the country, and unify the Party's role in overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties with the lawful performance of functions by the organs of the People's Congress, the administration, the CPPCC, the supervisory organs, the trial organs, and the procuratorial organs according to their respective charters. We must unify the Party's leadership of the people in formulating and implementing the Constitution and laws with the Party’s own persistence in acting within the scope of the Constitution and laws. With the concepts, systems, and procedures of the rule of law, we shall uphold the fundamentals and break new ground, making progress while maintaining stability in all work related to the comprehensive law-based governance of the country.