The Leadership of the CPC be written into the Laws: Standard, Scope and It’s Expression
Authors: Jia Yong-jian 
Published: June 2024

Promoting the Communist Party of China’s leadership into the law is an inevitable requirement for the CPC’s comprehensive leadership in governing the country according to law in the new era, and it is also a legislative action to implement the CPC’s Leadership clause of the Constitution. On the issue of the standard of «the party’s leadership into the law», the academic circles have successively put forward two representative viewpoints: «theory in the field of public law» and «theory of political standard». But both are too formal to be applied in practice. For example, although the political judgment standard theory initially involves the substantive content level, the actual understanding and application still seem relatively broad, and there is no substantive content to grasp.

In 2018, the amendments to China’s constitution added a clause that «the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics», which fundamentally established the criterion of «socialist attributes»: a substantive criterion of «promoting CPC’s leadership into the law». According to this provision, if the law needs to confirm the leadership of the Communist Party of China , it means the law should highlight its socialist nature. The question of which national legislation needs to specify the «leadership of the Party» is essentially the issue of which national legislation needs to highlight the socialist nature in the substance and must ensure its socialist attribute.

Therefore, to judge whether a national legislation should state «the leadership of the Communist Party of China», the substantive content should be based on whether the country’s legislation has outstanding socialist attributes and should absolutely guarantee and give special prominence to its socialist values. In this constitutional sense, state legislation stipulating «the leadership of the Communist Party of China» is to highlight its «socialist» attributes; In order to manifest and guarantee its socialist character, state legislation must clearly stipulate the principle of «Adhere to the leadership of the CPC». The Constitution is the fundamental law and supreme law of the country, and the highest standard and basis for national legislation. Therefore, national legislation should also be based on the Constitution when stipulating the «leadership of the Communist Party of China» clause. That is, national legislation with prominent socialist attributes should comprehensively stipulate «upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China». The basic scope of these legislation involves the fields of basic system of state and government, national defense and military, national security, cadre personnel, education, ideological security, governing the country according to law, anti-monopoly, etc., and mainly belongs to public law. The legislative field with socialist attributes is a practical and opening field. With the in-depth development of socialist practice, when the socialist nature in some fields is gradually highlighted and clearly recognized by legislators, its corresponding legislation will clearly stipulate the principle of «upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China», which further confirm and guarantee its «socialist attribute» at the national legislative level. Therefore, the issue of the field and scope of «the Party’s leadership into the law» is fundamentally a dynamic issue, a dynamic field that has always been constantly evolving in the face of the development of socialist practice.

To promote the Party’s leadership into the law, the fundamental purpose should be conducive to strengthening the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and comprehensively consider the coordination and convergence between the national laws and the Communist Party of China’s regulations under the socialist rule of law system. The newly revised National Constitution in 2018 has established a legislative expression model that confirmed the leadership of the Communist Party of China in principle and abstractly. The normative content of how the Chinese Communist Party exercises its leadership is specified in detail by the Communist Party of China Constitution. The Communist Party regulations are the main basis rules for the party to manage the party and govern the party, and have outstanding functions of governing the party and controlling power. They are most suitable for comprehensively standardizing and directly stipulating the specific content and procedures of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party over the country. In this way, the national laws and the Communist Party of China regulations can be harmony and unified in the socialist system of rule of law as a whole. Accordingly, when relevant national legislation stipulates «the CPC’s leadership», it should also mainly implement the model established by the National Constitution and the Communist Party of China Constitution, which confirm the leadership of the Communist Party of China in principle and abstractly. So, there will leave the legislative blanks for the Communist Party of China regulations to stipulate the normative content such as its specific scope, matters, methods, procedures, responsibilities, and so on. This legislative white space is intentional from an overall perspective of the socialist rule of law system, and is a «rule of law interface» that must be reserved for the integration of the Communist Party of China regulations with national laws to further specific provisions on the actual content of «the CPC’s leadership».

As a result, the national legislation focuses on «abstract confirmation of the party’s leadership status», while the Communist Party of China regulations focus on directly regulating and restraining the party’s leadership activities in a comprehensive and concrete way. The national laws and the Communist Party of China regulations are closely coordinated and connected on the issue of promoting the CPC’s leadership into the law. At that time, there is a differentiated division of labor and dislocation and complementary relationship between the national laws and the Communist Party of China regulations. That will not only highlight the unity and scientific nature of the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics but also conducive to accelerating the formation of a rule of law pattern in which national laws and the Communist Party of China regulations complement each other, promote each other, and guarantee each other. The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party over the country will be confirmed and guaranteed by party rules and state law, and will be more stable in the socialist rule of law system.