What Direction for Legal Reform under Xi Jinping? (Excerpt)

• Author: China Law Digest

Hopes for reform in China have risen in recent weeks. Xi’s speech regarding China’s need for the rule of law gave rise to press speculation that he may pursue legal and political reform. Naturally, this comes against the background of a conservative turn against legal reform by Chinese leaders in recent years.

Changes in Party Rhetoric Ironically, some of the key linguistic shifts came from Hu during the run-up to the November leadership handover.

One such shift originated with Hu’s July 23 speech to ministerial and provincial heads. This speech appears to have introduced a new political phrasing (tifa), calling for authorities to “devote more attention…to the important uses of rule of law in national governance and social management (shehui zhili)”. Since party political-legal authorities had employed “social management” as an umbrella term for the expansion of their activities in recent years, this new phrasing appears to be an implicit rebuke. It suggests that Chinese leaders may deploy rule-of-law norms strategically to curtail the power of party political-legal authorities.

Further linguistic changes appeared in the 2012 work report. The 18th Party Congress Work Report has marginally stronger language that the party itself is obligated to operate within the confines of the constitution and laws. This, however, remains nuanced by the statement that the party itself remains the originator of both.

Yet a third example of a change in rhetoric occurred in the White Paper on Judicial Reform released by the Information Office of the State Council in October 2012. The politicized language regarding a “socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics,” a hallmark in Party political-legal pronouncements over recent years, has receded. The white paper clearly states that the current round of legal reforms begun in 2008 is “basically finished.” Even more noteworthy, there is not a single reference in the entire document to the Chinese Communist Party.

Nonetheless, the white paper does suggest that some Chinese leaders may seek to curb efforts of party political-legal organs to re-impose greater political controls on the Chinese judiciary in recent years. The paper also suggests there may be some openness to dealing with the issue of judicial and legal reform in a more objective manner.

Implications

Liberal intellectuals and reformist officials view the party political-legal apparatus as politically vulnerable now.

Over the fall, this led to a...