1. We upheld the CPC's leadership.

The leadership of the CPC is the fundamental guarantee for ensuring that the people are masters of their country, following the rule of law, strengthening the democratic legal system, and doing legislative work well. The CPC represents the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and the principles and policies formulated by the Party and its legislative proposals pool the collective wisdom of the whole Party and country and embody the common will of the overwhelming majority of the people. Upholding the leadership of the Party is entirely the same as subordinating oneself to the interests of the people. We upheld the leadership of the Party throughout our legislative work and ensured that through legal procedures, the views of the Party become the will of the state as well as the standards and norms of conduct the whole society abides by. We worked to provide an institutional and legal guarantee that the line, policies and principles of the Party are implemented and that reform, opening up and socialist modernization proceed smoothly. With our focus firmly on the central task of the Party and country, we made overall plans for legislative work, scientifically formulated legislative programs and plans, and actively advanced key legislative projects to ensure that major decisions and arrangements of the Party and government are carried out. We also promptly reported to the CPC Central Committee major and difficult legislative problems we encountered. In short, all of our laws and regulations were enacted under the leadership of the Party, and all the laws and regulations that we enact must be conducive to strengthening and improving the leadership of the Party, consolidating and improving the Party's governing status, and ensuring that the Party leads the people in effectively governing the country.

2. We continued to be guided by the socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics.

Adhering to the correct guiding thought is a fundamental prerequisite for strengthening the democratic legal system and doing our legislative work well. The socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics is a scientific theoretical system which includes major strategic thinking such as Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the scientific outlook on development. It is the latest achievement in Sinicizing Marxism, and the most valuable political and intellectual wealth of our Party. It is the common ideological foundation upon which the people of all our ethnic groups work in unity, the guiding thought we must adhere to for a long time to come, and a fundamental guideline for success in all our work. Throughout our legislative work, we have always adhered to the socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics as our guide, and used it to unify our thinking and determine a line of thought for legislation. Our guiding thought for legislation has been to always integrate upholding the Four Cardinal Principles with adhering to the reform and opening up policy, adhering to the basic socialist system with developing the market economy, spurring transformation of the economic base with spurring reform of the superstructure, increasing efficiency with promoting social equity, promoting reform and development with maintaining social stability, and maintaining our independence with participating in economic globalization; and to ensure that the laws and regulations we enact are conducive to consolidating and improving the socialist system, liberating and developing the productive forces, and making the most of the advantages of the socialist system.

3. We steadfastly proceeded from China's conditions and realities.

Steadfastly proceeding from China's conditions and realities is an objective requirement for strengthening the democratic legal system and doing our legislative work well. Throughout our legislative work, we have always proceeded from China's conditions and realities; taken the great praxes of reform, opening up and socialist modernization as the foundation for legislation; and done our legislative work with our attention firmly on the central task of economic development, on the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and on promoting scientific development and facilitating social harmony. We correctly balanced reform, development and stability; properly balanced the stability of law and the changeability of practice and the progressiveness and feasibility of laws; and ensured that the legislative process is in line with the processes of reform, opening up and socialist modernization. In areas where we have abundant practical experience and consensus among all parties, we have made laws more specific so that they are more practicable. In areas where we have little practical experience but in reality laws are needed to impose standards, we have made laws more general in order to provide standards and guarantees for guiding practice while leaving room to deepen reforms and to revise and supplement the laws when the conditions are ripe. For new situations and problems that we have encountered during reform and opening up, and for which the conditions do not now exist for standardizing them by means of law, we have formulated administrative regulations and local statutes on the basis of our statutory limits of authority. After implementing them on a trial basis, we will enact laws when we have sufficient experience and ripe conditions. We have also attached importance to learning from foreign legislative experience in order to absorb elements that are beneficial and useful for us; but we never blindly follow or imitate others. Different countries have different systems of laws, and we do not copy the systems of laws of certain Western countries when enacting the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. We do not enact laws that exist in foreign systems of laws but that do not suit China's conditions and realities. We do promptly formulate laws that do not exist in foreign systems of laws but that are needed for real life in China.

4. We steadfastly put people first and legislated for the people.

Steadfastly putting people first and legislating for the people is the fundamental purpose of strengthening the democratic legal system and doing legislative work well. Throughout our legislative work, we have made serving, safeguarding and developing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people our starting point and objective. In both the process of enacting laws and in the norms established through their enactment, we have always put people first, respected the important position of the people and their pioneering spirit, derived wisdom from their practices and innovativeness, and drawn motivation from their demands for development. We have properly balanced the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, the common interests of the masses at the current stage, and the particular interests of different groups. We have correctly reflected and accommodated the interests of different groups and focused on solving practical problems that the people are most concerned about and that affect them most directly. We have correctly handled the relation between authority and rights and between power and responsibility. We have bestowed the necessary powers on administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs, and paid attention to standardizing, constraining and overseeing the exercise of power in order to earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and organizations. We have adhered to the mass line; made our legislative work scientific and democratic; gotten NPC deputies to fully play their role in legislation; constantly expanded the orderly participation of citizens in legislation; and solicited the opinions of all sides, particularly the masses at the primary level, by making drafts of laws and regulations available to the public and holding legislation forums, debates and hearings. In this way, we have genuinely ensured that we have pooled the wisdom of all sides and consolidated consensus, so that the laws and regulations we have enacted fully embody the common will of the people.