In March 2004, the State Council promulgated the Outline for the Implementation of Promoting Law-based Administration in an All-round Way, defining as its goal to realize the rule of law in about one decade. Great progress has been made in administrative legislation, administrative review, administrative approval and administrative litigation.

VIII. Judicial reform has achieved preliminary effect

In the past three decades China has continuously built and improved its judicial system. The following progress has been made in judicial reform: First, it has been made more convenient for the public to file lawsuits. Second, supervision over litigations has been strengthened. Third, judicial transparency has improved. Fourth, policies on criminal litigation and dispute mediation mechanisms have been made better. Fifth, management methods have been reformed; Sixth, the litigation system and judicial democracy have been reformed. Seventh, division of power and human rights have improved. Eighth, the personnel management system and funding guarantee system have been overhauled.

At present, China has a total of 3,548 courts at different levels, employing 190,627 judges, and has 3,626 people's procuratorates at different levels, employing 142,614 procurators.

IX. Legal education grows rapidly

As of August 2008, 634 institutions of higher learning had law schools, with nearly 400,000 students majoring in law.

Campaigns to educate the general public about law have been launched with the reform and opening up policy and the building of a socialist democracy under the rule of law. Since 1985, China has included legal knowledge dissemination campaigns in its five-year plans.

China has made remarkable achievements in developing the rule of law, yet some problems still exist in the legal system and some new challenges have arisen. These include:

1. In terms of theoretical research on the rule of law, there are many ideas or principles, but not many scientific theories or supporting arguments.

2. Public confidence in the legal system is weak. There is not a strong system to guarantee the enforcement of the constitution. The law is often used as a tool to constrain others or to control the people.

3. The lawmaking process is still not democratic enough and laws are insufficiently effective. Departmental protectionism still plagues the lawmaking process.

4. Local and departmental protectionism exists in the administration of the law. Many reform measures only address symptoms rather than causes. Judicial injustice, low efficiency, corruption and political interference in judicial process still hamper administration by law and judicial justice.

5. The rapid growth of legal education has given rise to salient problems. Law students are huge in number but not strong in qualifications. There are many professors, but not many excellent ones; there are many legal publications, but not many of high quality.

6. Legal aid is in short supply, the quality is low and the service is not standardized.

Future tasks for developing the rule of law

While promoting the construction of democratic politics with Chinese characteristics and deepening reform of the political system, the development of the rule of law will focus on: adhering to and implementing governance by law, upholding democratic lawmaking, scientific law making, and improving the legal system; implementing administration by law in an all-round manner; deepening judicial reform and building a highly efficient and just judicial system; strengthening legal education and disseminating legal knowledge; and building systems and procedures to integrate the leadership of the CPC, people as masters of the country and the rule of law.

The 17th CPC National Congress held earlier this year set out a series of new tasks and strategies for implementing the rule of law.

We should summarize our reform experience in the past three decades, especially our experience in developing the rule of law in the past decade or so. Past experience shows that we should shift from our past practice of focusing solely on Western legal theories and practices to examining China's national conditions and integrating foreign practices with our own. We should shift from overly emphasizing learning through legal books to combining theoretical legal research with China's legal practices. We should upgrade legal research in China to a new level. We should shift our strategic focus from lawmaking to coordination between lawmaking and law enforcement, to ensure that the law is abided by, violators are punished and enforcement is rigorous and strict. We should expel the notion that the law is useless, and the notion that the law is omnipotent.