Rule of law

"Where is justice?

"Both Chinese and foreign literary works have a wealth of Robin Hood-style figures. But a chivalry is not the answer, as he can help just a few people. In reality, one can only find justice in the rule of law," Tong Lihua, a Beijing-based lawyer, wrote the lines in the preface of his book that summarized his 12-year experience managing a non-governmental legal aids center for child abuse victims and migrant workers who are denied wages and benefits.

"I believe the rule of law is the most effective solution to problems in the Chinese society today," said Tong, also a delegate to the 18th CPC National Congress.

Tong said while there are people who doubt the rule of law might work well in China, he never has that doubt.

"The best example in China's rule of law process is the way how we deal with drink driving," Tong said. "When people see no matter who is caught drink driving, he will be severely punished, most people won't drink if they drive."

Alcohol is indispensable in most dinner gatherings. While driving could not be used as an excuse for not drinking in the past, few drivers are forced to drink after tougher laws against reckless driving were strictly enforced in May 2011. Official figures show a sharp decline of drink driving cases.

The CPC formally introduced the language "rule of law" in its five-year report at the Party's 15th National Congress in 1997. Since then, much progress in legislation, law enforcement have been made, but calls for greater reform, especially judiciary reform, grew louder in recent years.

A Xinhua survey before the Congress showed that social justice is high on the "wish list" of ordinary Chinese.

Yan, the Party School professor, pointed out that the rule of law is among the three aspects singled out in Hu's report on political reform as areas that deserve more efforts.

"The CPC should give greater scope to the important role the rule of law plays in the country's governance and in social management," says the report, which also pledges further judiciary reform to ensure fair and independent exercise of judiciary and procuratory rights by the court and the prosecutors.

"If you look at details, Indian democracy, Indonesian democracy, American democracy -- they are all different in profound ways. But the basics that define democracy -- election, the rule of law, supervision -- are the same," Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institute said.

In an interview with Xinhua before the Congress, Li, a Chinese politics expert, said he believed "bold steps" of reform were being considered by the leadership because of the necessity to do so to cope with the fast changing society, especially in the wake of the Bo Xilai incident.

"No organization or individual has the privilege of overstepping the Constitution and laws, and no one in a position of power is allowed in any way to take one's own words as the law, place one's own authority above the law or abuse the law," Hu warned in his report.

Intra-party election

Political experts also noticed the emphasis on competitive election in Hu's report.

The report calls for efforts "to improve intra-Party election to create a procedure and conditions that fully represent the voters' will," the first time such wording to appear on the five-year CPC report.

It mentions the need to formulate competitive nomination and election into a system.

Since Deng Xiaoping's time, the Party leaders have been making intra-Party democracy a test ground to try out various democratic forms before they can be applied in the general public, said Wang, the Central Party School professor.

Intra-Party democracy is important because it concerns who will become the CPC leaders and how, political experts said. According to the CPC Constitution, all levels of the Party leadership, including the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee members, should be decided by election.

Both competitive and non-competitive -- one-candidate-for-one-seat election -- elections are legitimate forms in practice.

Though competitive election is mostly practiced at the grass-roots levels, there are signs in recent years that it is being expanded to upper levels of the Party hierarchy. "Competitive election has been used in a few provinces like Guangdong for top provincial Party officials this year," said Dai Yanjun, a Central Party School professor.

"It is an encouraging sign, because real election is competitive by nature."

For the current congress, the Central Committee will also be decided through competitive election, Cai Mingzhao, spokesman for the congress, announced earlier this week.

Experts pointed out that after competitive election was included in the report to the 17th CPC National Congress in 2007, the authorities ordered an expansion of competitive election in cadre selection process across the country.

The 18th CPC National Congress report clearly indicates further application of the election form, they said, though the timeline remains unclear.

Some people might tend to emphasize the defining moment for democracy but in reality you do need the maturity of the society, some basic preparations, said Li, the Brookings researcher.

"Democracy is a process, not an event," Li said. "There are people who see China's politics as a system that will never change, but in reality there are dynamic changes."