Towards the rule of law: an arduous but hopeful journey

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.