CPC sets blueprint for rule of law at key meeting

Key points of the meeting The Communist Party of China (CPC) should lead the country's drive to advance the rule of law.   China will establish a mechanism in which officials will be given demerits or held accountable if they are found interfering in judicial cases.   Three new members filled vacancies of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday after former members were expelled from the Party.

BEIJING - The Communist Party of China (CPC) set the blueprint for rule of law in the world's second largest economy during a key meeting this week, which also highlighted the Party's leadership and the overarching role of the Constitution in the country's legal system.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee was held in Beijing from Oct. 20 to 23.

According to a communique issued after the meeting, the overall target of the CPC's current drive to advance rule of law is to "form a system serving the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics" and build a country with socialist rule of law.

China will ensure the leadership of CPC in the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, the communique read.

It added that "to realize the rule of law, the country should be ruled in line with the Constitution."

The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee should play a better role in supervising the Constitution's implementation, and a mechanism to examine the legitimacy of major decision-making should be set up for governments, with a lifelong liability accounting system for major decisions and a mechanism to backtrack liabilities, it said.

This is the first time a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee has taken rule of law as its central theme.

The four-day meeting, which ran from Oct. 20 to 23, was presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee

It also adopted a decision from the CPC Central Committee on "major issues concerning comprehensively advancing rule of law," and heard a work report of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

A total of 363 members and alternate members of the CPC Central Committee attended the meeting, which also gathered grassroots level delegates of the CPC's 18th National Congress as well as experts and scholars.