简体中文
Yan Jinchang is not able to give exact definition for "rule of law" or "rule of man", the 71-year-old farmer feels good about China's improving legal system.
Talking about the land ownership certificate and transference, the man from east China's Anhui Province told Xinhua in strong accent "I know, this is the most important 'rule of law' to me."
In 2005, Yan was persuaded by the villagers committee to lease 0.47 hectares of land to a businessman from Shanghai to run a hog farm. He didn't sign contract and felt unsure at first.
"But a cadre said to me 'he couldn't steal your land and carry it to Shanghai. So I trusted him and agreed," Yan said. Five years later, the hog farm was transformed into a hotel and the Shanghai businessman left. Yan couldn't get his land back.
In recent years, the Chinese government has attached greater importance to legitimacy of land transference. "Experts and college students always give lectures here free-of-charge, telling us how to safeguard our own rights," Yan said.
He has leased another 1.87 hectares of land since 2011. The rent rises each year.
Twists and turns
"All the land under heaven belongs to the emperor, and everyone is his servant," the famous saying from China's first poetry collection Shijing goes.
But even emperors had their problems. China's last emperor Aisin-Gioro Puyi said in his autobiography that he had no right to choose his own wife, because two imperial concubines of his father both wanted the new queen to be closer to them.
Similar tragedies also occurred to ordinary people who had no right to choose his or her spouse under the feudal ethics. This situation didn't change until 1950, when the New Marriage Law was enacted as China's first basic law since liberation. It banned marriage by proxy, and stipulated that both parties should agree to the marriage.
Statistics suggest that in 1950, about 90 percent of the marriage in China was arranged. This proportion dwindled to 10 percent seven years after the law was passed.
The Land Law passed later made 300 million peasants the owners of 46.7 million hectares of land, while the Trade Union Law ensured that workers had voices in their factories.
In 1954, the first constitution of New China laid foundation for the rule of law.
However, progressive legal reforms were damaged in the decade-long Cultural Revolution that began in 1966. Liu Shaoqi, then Chairman of China, held high a copy of Constitution, but couldn't change his fate of persecution.
"At that time, China was in a state of turmoil," said Li Shuguang, a professor with the China University of Political Science and Law. "The country was ruled by men at their own will, without pervasive laws and regulations."
After the reform and opening-up, China reflected on the disaster. Xiao Yang, former chief justice of the Supreme People's Court, remembered the private discussions of rule of law against rule of man, but no one dared to bring it on the table at the beginning.
In 1978, senior leader Deng Xiaoping said in a speech that to ensure people's democracy, the legal system must be reinforced and that legal system and laws won't be changed with the changes of leaders.
The Fifteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1997 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.
An outline for implementation was issued in 2004, which for the first time set forth the guideline for the full-scale promotion of administration by law in the ensuing ten years.
"The rule of law is the basic resort for governing the country," said Chinese President Xi Jinping, who holds a doctorate of law.
Progress and milestones
By 2013, China's National People's Congress had decreed 243 laws, and the cabinet drafted more than 680 regulations.
Ma Huaide, vice president of China University of Political Science and Law, saw several milestones on the cause of legislation.
An example was the Administrative Litigation Law, which was implemented in 1990. "This law changed the mentality of Chinese people, whom, for thousands of years, couldn't and didn't dare to sue officials," Ma said.
With this law, 52-year-old farmer Song Xinyuan filed lawsuit against the Anhui provincial department of environmental protection, which made an assessment for a local polluting enterprise.
"I haven't won yet, but operation of the enterprise has suspended," he said. "I am using the legal weapon to protect our health and own right."
Sometimes, legislation is triggered by an incident.
A regulation for saving beggars in cities was implemented in 2003 at the price of a young life, after 27-year-old Sun Zhigang was beaten to death in an asylum.
In 2009, 47-year-old Tang Fuzhen from southwest China's Sichuan province set herself on fire to protest the forced demolition of her house. She died in hospital 16 days later. Tang was just one of the Chinese in violent and deadly protest against land seizures, and their tragedies got people's attention. In 2010, "administrative forced demolition" was banned.
"During the 30 plus years after reform and opening-up, China has finished a legislation process which took western countries hundreds of years," said Yang Tianzong, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan provincial committee of the CPC. "However, old habits die hard and the mindset of Chinese people don't change easily."
Raising people's awareness
Li Xueming, Party chief of Shushan District of Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province, had a story. In his jurisdiction, a petitioner went to Beijing for 91 times in a year, so that local government had to meet his needs to pacify him. "Many ordinary people believed in petition rather than legal procedure," he said. "Once they make a fuss, they believe, local government has to give in."
In the Shidi Town of Mianzhu in southwest China's Sichuan Province, seven villagers, cheated by a seed company, had a detailed petition plan.
"We divided ourselves into three groups, each with a truck," Luo Kaihua said. "We were going to carry the bamboo shoots harvested to three provincial government departments to seek justice."
The 51-year-old farmer saw his house toppled down in the earthquake in 2008, which deprived him of all his fortune, with "only a stool" remaining. He then worked very hard and with the money he earned, he contracted for 10 hectares of land with six other villagers.
They bought some seed earlier this year. But the bamboo shoots they reaped were not green, but white, which no one would buy. The seed company refused to compensate for their loss. The angry villagers decided to make petitions.
Their plan was heard by Luo Yinjie, Party chief of the Shidi Town. The 32-year-old Sociology major convinced them. "They didn't know how to obtain evidence, we found legal experts to help," he said. "If this dispute could be resolved through legal procedures, I am sure more villagers here will believe in the rule of law in the future."
In China, between seven to eight million petitions were lodged each year. "It is quite important to raise people's awareness at grassroots level in China, so as to promote the rule of law," Yang Tianzong said.
Local governments have their own ways for law education. In the Fuqiang Village of Deyang, Sichuan, 1,400 villagers spent half a year drafting village regulations.
Deng Yuanqin suggested that chicken should be kept in pens so as to avoid disputes and improve the environment in the village. "Then people took a vote. More than 90 percent of them raised up their hands to show support," said the 39-year-old woman, beaming with pride.
She noted that in the past, neighbors always argued about the use of land and missing livestock. "Now the relationship between villagers improved," she said.
Bumpy road ahead
While the mindset of people at grassroots level is changing, experts are calling for change among law executors.
China's famous legal expert Jiang Ping believed that however the rule of law was stressed, power abuse is still a common phenomenon in China. Some officials took the lead in violating laws.
Ren Runhou, former vice governor of Shanxi, who was caught earlier this year, had a theory. He thought that power could generate profit, while money could buy power. Once visiting a coal mine, he asked the staff members "if I give you the right of sales, the right to hire people and the right to purchase material, will you earn another 100 million yuan (about 16.3 million U.S. dollars) for the mine?"
Improvement of laws and regulations is another necessity for rule of law.
A unnamed procurator told Xinhua that some clauses were not precise with loopholes. "Such as sentencing," he said. "A corrupt official who took 100,000 yuan might be sentenced to death, while another who embezzled millions of yuan could only be jailed for 15 years."
The Haimen city of east China's Jiangsu province launched a campaign to check the implementation of laws. So far they have discovered six laws out of 60 which lost efficacy at grassroots level. Another 13 were vague, unreasonable or not feasible enough, or contradicted other regulations.
"Seeing these problems, people will gradually lose confidence in the rule of law," said a local official who declined to be named.
Experts have pinned their hope on the upcoming Fourth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee, which is set to open next Monday. The rule of law is expected to be the central theme.
