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Focus on China

China’s leaders meet with ‘rule of law’ on agenda

– ‘Just a phrase’ –

A high-level meeting in November proclaimed the Communist Party’s commitment to the “rule of law with Chinese characteristics”.

In a commentary last week the official Xinhua news agency said: “Catapulting a nation long entrenched in a tradition of rule by men into a law-abiding society is… a revolution that will have a far-reaching impact.”

It added that measures being taken “showcase that China’s determination to build a law-abiding society and government is not empty words, dashing Western media reports alleging that China’s efforts to pursue the rule of law are futile”.

But the authorities stress that the principle of the Party’s leadership is vital, while under Xi the promises of legal reform have been coupled with a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Experts say the repeated rhetoric has yet to be accompanied by practical change.

“In the past year or two, there hasn’t been any progress on China’s rule of law and actually it’s gone backwards,” said Zhang Xuezhong, a lawyer who has represented reform advocates.

“Every leader, from (former presidents) Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, all talk about rule of law,” said Zhang, a former professor at East China University of Political Science and Law. “But for them it’s just a phrase in a speech.”

Instead of helping to shine a light on local corruption, petitioners are usually met with police harassment, stints in “re-education through labour” camps – whose abolition was announced in 2013 – and beatings.

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Cases are left unresolved for years or decades, usually forever.

In 2013, officials resolved less than 0.1 percent of the nearly two million new complaints at all levels of government, according to a white paper published by the State Council, China’s cabinet.

But after years of petitioning, time in detention, their life savings exhausted and suffering a sometimes severe psychological toll, many still doggedly pursue their causes, with no other life left to return to.

“Being emotional won’t bring him back and it won’t help my case,” Xu said. “I don’t even cry anymore, not about my dead son, or the injustice.”

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