Wield power within framework of the law

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his New Year speech via state broadcasters in Beijing, Dec. 31, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

The leadership of the Party should never be an excuse for a leader to consider his or her own words as the law, to place power before the law or bend law for personal gain. This is what top leader Xi Jinping told a group of provincial leaders at a forum on governing according to the Constitution and the law on Monday.

It can be interpreted not so much an instruction as a warning to both government and Party officials. And it can also be explained as the top leadership's further emphasis on the importance of handling well the relationship between the rule of law and the leadership of the governing Communist Party of China.

Xi said that power is a double-edged sword, which will bring benefits to the people when used according to the rule of law but it will create disasters for both the people and the country when wielded outside the law.

There is no contradiction between the Party and the rule of law, between the Party's leadership and governing the country according to law, Xi said. The Party must exercise its leadership within the framework of the Constitution and the law.

These are definitely not platitudes that officials can ignore.

An official at any level cannot consider the power in his or her hands as private property that can be used for any purpose he or she wants. Yet it is not uncommon for some officials to defy the law and Party discipline for personal gain.

Rampant corruption has not only greatly compromised the governing capability of the ruling Party and the government. It has also done a lot of damage to the credit of both.

So it is of vital importance to the future of the Party and the nation to place power within the framework of the rule of law.

Given the magnitude of the anti-graft campaign in the past years and the remarks by the top leaders about the complexity and protracted nature of this fight, to organize provincial leaders at a forum to bring home to them the importance of governing according to law is just the beginning of what Xi described as placing power in the cage of law.

The gradual building of a mechanism will hopefully continue to reduce the space for abuse of power.