From China Daily

By Zheng Shouyi 

China's push for the rule of law this year is unprecedented since its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, because China's development has come to such a turning point that the country is finding it hard to sustain its stability and growth with the former rule of government power.

The reform of the legislature, judiciary and administration, as the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China outlined in a rule of law reform road map at its Fourth Plenum this year, will make the rule of law more pertinent to the needs of the nation's development, the judicial departments more independent and professional, and government power more restricted and supervised.

I came to China from the Philippines in 1956 at the age of 25, responding to the call of my father and late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai to help China restart its marine biology research, so I am a witness to every step of progress and every drawback of the country.

The market reform of China after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) ushered the country into a new phase of development, which focused on high-speed growth.

But the strong power wielded by the government in not only the political realm, but also the society, market, and even the legislature and judiciary fields, has become increasingly inappropriate with the need to establish a market economy, a healthy society and a fair judicature.

A major task of the new reform program today is to uphold the dignity of laws, make lawyers more independent and professional, restrict the government's power, and prevent the government from meddling with the lawmakers, the courts and the prosecutors' work.

I am happy to see that the central authority decided to let provincial authorities administer the personnel and funds of the city and county courts directly as this will help prevent local governments' interference with the judicature.

The administrative organs should not have power superior to the laws. But that is not enough, the legislature and judicature organs should be independent from the government at last. The direct provincial government cannot ensure judicial justice either, as so many senior level officials of and above provincial levels are found guilty of abusing power and graft recently.

It is necessary, as the central authority vowed in its reform plan, to prosecute government officials who break the law in handling cases. This is an overdue reaction to the people's strong call for a fair and independent judicature.

The judicial department's staff should not meddle with the investigation or trial of cases. It is important to set up a mechanism to record officials who interfere in judicial cases and name them publicly to hold them accountable. And there should be a lifelong accountability system for personnel.

So far, all the rule of law tasks exist on paper only. I hope the reform plan to deepen rule of law in the country can be implemented word for word. Next year will be an important period for translating the words into deeds.

To build a nation on rule of law, the government and the courts must abide by the law in the first place.

The author is an academician of the Institute of Oceanology with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao, Shandong province. This article is edited from articles and materials provided by the author with her authorization. 

Link: http://africa.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2014-12/22/content_19138474.htm