Zhou Yongkang Issues Harsh Crackdown Initiative

China Aid Association
CARRY OUT THE SACRED MISSION OF BEING THE BUILDER AND DEFENDER OF OUR SOCIALIST CAUSE WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS WITH UNUSUAL DETERMINATION, ENERGY AND UNUSUAL SOLID MEASURES AND UNUSUAL WORKING EFFECTIVENESS SO AS TO MAKE NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS OF THE SOCIALIST CAUSE WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS.
Zhou Yongkang: Firmly and steadfastly become the builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.                                                                     
Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, secretary of Central Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs.
People in agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs should study intensively and fully master the strategic deployment on strengthening and improving political and legislative work made at the 17th  CPC National Congress.  They should also study intensively and fully master the basic requirements proposed for the political and legislative work in the important speech of General Secretary Hu Jintao in his seminar with delegates to the National Political and Legislative Working Conference, national grand justices and grand procurators.  With this in mind, they should carry out the sacred mission of being the builder and defender of our socialist cause with Chinese characteristics with unusual determination, energy and unusual solid measures and unusual working effectiveness so as to make new contributions to the development and progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
1.   They should consistently persevere in the political direction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and earnestly enhance their consciousness and steadiness in building and defending the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
As a state machine of people’s democratic dictatorship, agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs have in their hands the sacred mission of consolidating the ruling position of the Communist Party, safeguarding a long and peaceful reign of the state, guaranteeing the people’s life and work in peace and contentment and serving the economic and social development.  Whether they can persevere in the right political direction determines the rise or fall and success or failure of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
As the builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must be firm in their belief in the socialism with Chinese characteristics.  Building and developing the socialism with Chinese characteristics is a great practice of the Chinese people in building a wealthy, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern country under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in the context of the reality in China.  This belief is the fundamental guarantee of the prosperity of our country, rise of our nation and the happiness of our people.  This is the inevitable outcome of the history, choice of the reality and the direction of the future.  Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must enhance their political, theoretical and emotional identification with the socialism with Chinese characteristics and hoist as a great banner the socialism with Chinese characteristics.  They must also persevere in regarding it as the right way, apply it as a scientific theory and pursue it as the common ideal so as to lay a solid ideological foundation for being a good builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
As the builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, the agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must plan and promote the political and legislative affairs in the overall context of development of socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.  The agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must use as its guidelines the overall development of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics and enhance its understanding of adherence in the rule of law, enforcement of law for the people, safeguarding of scientific development and promotion of social harmony.  They should correctly implement their functions endowed by the Constitution and the law, be good at safeguarding the vital interests of the people through legal means, be good at adjusting economic and social relationships through legal means, be good at resolving conflicts and disputes through the law, safeguarding the social justice and be good at preventing and fighting crimes and managing public order through the law, so that they can provide strong legal guarantees and legal services for the development and progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
As the builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, the agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must have a clear-cut stand in fighting all forms of conduct that interfere and undermine the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.  The agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs should also keep a clear mind, enhance their sense of the political power, sense of the overall situation, sense of meeting potential problems and sense of responsibility.  They should be highly on guard against and try their best in preventing any attempts that aim at blackening the image of our country and undermining the security and social stability of our country.  They should resolutely prevent all types of infiltration, disturbances, sabotage and subversion efforts and defend with actual actions the Party’s leadership, the socialist power, the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, the great fruits of reform, development and stability and the fundamental interests of the great majority of the people.
The socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics has been established with Marxist law as its guidelines and on the basis of summarizing the successful experience of the socialist judicial practice of our country and by actively absorbing the fruits of mankind’s civilizations in rule of law and by taking into consideration of the actual reality in our country.  The socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics is a great creation in the history of rule of law and has distinct Chinese characteristics.  As regards to the very nature of the judicial system, they should adhere to the combination of the leadership of the Party, ruling by the people and governance of the country through law; as regards to the source of judicial power, they should adhere to the principle that the judicial power comes from the people and belongs to the people; as regards to the deployment of judicial power, they should adhere to the principle of mutual restraint and mutual cooperation between the rights of investigation, procuratorial power, the judicial authority and executive power; as regards to the exercise of the judicial power, they should adhere to the principle that judicial authorities and procuratorial agencies can both independently and fairly exercise their authorities according to law and self-consciously accept the supervision of the Party, National People’s Congress, Political Consultative Conferences and the supervision by the people in general; as regards to the manner of operation of the judicial power, they should adhere to the combination of special agency work and the approach through the broad masses, etc.  As this judicial system has both inherited the excellent fruits of the civilization of legal system in the history of our country and borrowed the beneficial elements from the rule of law in other countries, it has unmatched superiority.  The practice of this judicial system since the founding of the new China, especially since the reform and opening-up of our country, has proven that this system suits the actual situation of our country and it guarantees and promotes the development and progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.  To meet the new requirements in speeding up the construction of a socialist country ruled by law, we should continue to absorb and learn from the positive practice of the other countries with the preconditions that the interests of the state and the fundamental rights of the great majority of people are protected.  However, we must clearly be aware of:
Politically, our country and the countries in the West have two political systems that are entirely different in nature and have two different roads to rule of law.  We must adhere to the socialist nature with Chinese characteristics and we must not change the fundamental nature of the judicial system of our country.
Economically, our country and the countries in the West have two economic systems that are entirely different in nature and we and the West are at two different stages of development.  We must solve the problems of the current stage with the actual judicial system that suits the circumstances of the current stage in China and we must not propose demands that are too high and that are beyond what the current stage can accommodate.
Culturally, our country and the countries in the West are guided by two ideologies and two legal and cultural traditions that are different in nature.  We must solve problems with ways of thinking and measures that suit the will of the masses and we must not apply mechanically and indiscriminately the judicial ideas and modes of the West.
The difference in nature between the socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics and the capitalist judicial system has determined that the nature of the reform in the judicial system of our country can only be the self-improvement and development of the socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics.  The fundamental principle for the reform in the judicial system is taking into consideration the actual circumstances in our country and fully bring into play the superiority of the socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics.  The emphasis of the reform in the judicial system is trying our best to meet the judicial needs of the people and solving those persistent ailments such as weak spots in law enforcement, injustices in the judicial procedures, difficulties in lawsuits and in law enforcement, so as to let the people feel in the true sense of the word the warmth, convenience, justice and high efficiency of the socialist judicial system; we must exert ourselves in strengthening the restraint and supervision on power to ensure that while the judicial organs support and cooperate with each other, they also supervise and restrict each other’s power so that the law of the state is correctly implemented.   We must exert ourselves in solving the barriers that affect the system, mechanism and guarantee in the judicial justice so as to ensure that judicial organs can independently and justly exercise their power according to law.  The purpose of the reform in the judicial system is establishing a just and highly-efficient socialist judicial system with authority so as to ensure that the judicial organs can even better implement its functions bestowed by the Constitution and the law so that it may provide a powerful judicial guarantee for the development and progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.

2.  Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs should do a real good job in implementing the foremost political tasks and in creating a harmonious and stable social environment for the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.
For the development and progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, we must have a harmonious and stable social environment.  Otherwise, nothing can be said of the development and the progress.  Development is self-evident as a reason and is the No. 1 task; stability is a hard task and is the No. 1 responsibility.  Development is a political achievement and stability is also a political achievement.  People working at the political and legislative fronts should take it as their foremost political task to safeguard the ruling position of the Party, safeguard the security of the state, the rights of the people and ensure the stability of the society in general.  If we want do a good job in carrying out and implementing the spirit of the important instructions of General Secretary Hu Jintao and earnestly take on the foremost political task, we must go along with the new situation and new requirements in the socialist economic construction, political construction, cultural construction and social construction and the new expectations from the people in general.  We should also realize new transformations in our guiding principles, modes of thinking and actual actions in accordance with scientific concept of development so that we can plan and improve our political and legislative work truly with scientific ideas and harmonious methods from a higher starting point and at a higher level.  In this way, we can motivate at a maximum level the creativity in the society and maximize the harmonious factor and minimize the non-harmonious factors so that we can guarantee social fairness and justice and promote social harmony and stability.
Safeguarding the rights of the people is the most basic starting point for our work and we should exert ourselves in integrating more of this in our various types of political and legislative work so that we can safeguard and promote social harmony and stability from the very bottom.  We should adhere to the principle that the wellbeing of the people comes first and law enforcement should serve the people.  Safeguarding the rights of the people is both the fundamental concept of historical materialism and the core principle of socialist rule of law.  It is both the fundamental mark of socialist laws and the goal of our political and legislative work.
Under the current new circumstance in the reform, opening up and developing the socialist market economy, we need all the more strengthen the education of serving the people in the political and legislative agencies.  In this way, we can make the police officers lay a solid ideological foundation in safeguarding the rights of the people and voluntarily do things that the people find the most satisfactory and correct themselves from the most dissatisfactory things that the people find.  In this way, we can take as the starting point problems in people’s livelihood that the people think are the most urgent ones that need to be addressed.  The place that the people need the most is the place that the police officers need to go most urgently.  The things that people find need to do most urgently are the things that police officers should do with all their efforts.  Problems that the people dislike the most are the problems that the police officers should address with all their efforts.  By no means should they let all the ordinary people be harmed in any way and by no means should they allow the ordinary people to be unable to afford a lawsuit and by no means should they allow the court to be the purely the arena for lawsuit skills and eloquence and by no means should they ignore the emergency call to the police from the ordinary people and by no means should they try to gain departmental or personal interests from the people.  They should try to perfect the mechanism of safeguarding the rights of the people with guidance from the Party and the government so as to let people enjoy the more true, full-flown and widespread human rights.
We should exert ourselves in better pursuing the prime values of social fairness and justice in our law enforcement and case handling so as to let the people feel by themselves the fairness and justice of a socialist society.  Safeguarding social fairness and justice is the lifeline of political and legislative work and is the most basic requirement for the political and legislative agencies. Political and legislative agencies and the policemen must pursue the safeguarding of social fairness and justice as the top value of political and legislative work.  They should voluntarily and earnestly resist the influence and disruption from people with power, connections, human emotions, personal interests and other factors.  They should regard every case and everything they do as the specific practice in safeguarding social fairness and justice and meet the requirements in safeguarding social fairness and justice in substance, procedure and within the time limit so as to achieve strict law enforcement and fair justice.
What we should especially do is adhere to the principle that all men are equal before the law and by no means should we allow “people not served by the law” to be out there; we should also perfect the system of judicial assistance and legal assistance and actually solve the problems that some people in special hardships cannot afford lawsuits or get assistance.  At this time, we should solve the problems of lax law enforcement, unjust judgment in court and difficulties in law enforcement.
We should exert ourselves in integrating the concept that management means providing service into our work of social management so that the law enforcement officers and the people receiving the law enforcement understand each other, resulting in the internal unity of the form of law enforcement and effect of law enforcement.  Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must go with the general trend in the social development and progress, and bear in mind the well-being of humanity and make the ordinary people feel safer, more convenient, more civilized and more harmonious.  We should update our concept of social management and execute the transformation from preventive management to management on an equal footing, management that is free and that provides service; we should also create a new social management system and mechanism and achieve a transformation from a system where the government is in charge of everything to a system where the social management is under the leadership of the Party committee, is the responsibility of the government with association from the society at large and participation from the public; we should improve the mode of social management and achieve the transformation from management through issuing approvals to daily management; we should perfect the means of social management and achieve the transformation from a unitary administrative means to a comprehensive application of law, policies, economy, administration, education and other means so as to enhance the overall level of social management.
We should exert ourselves in integrating the principle of giving priority to mediation into the adjustment of economic and social relationships according to law so that we can effectively solve conflicts and disputes.  As the economic system deepens in reform, as the social structure experiences fundamental changes, as the layout of interests experiences fundamental adjustments and as people’s ideas and views experience great changes, the social conflicts have entered a phase where they are easy to erupt and erupt often.  Coordinating the relationship among interest groups in their entirety and solving conflicts and disputes in a timely manner has always been the most difficult and heaviest task in safeguarding social harmony and stability.
We should untie both the “legal knots” between the clients and also the “emotional knots” between them so as to settle the disputes and stop the conflicts in the real sense of the word.  To settle the disputes and stop the conflicts and close the case, we must fully utilize mediation.  We must also earnestly enhance the people’s awareness of mediation and combine all the mediation factors and expand the areas of mediation.  We should also create new mediation methods.  We should especially try to perfect the mediation mechanism of people’s mediation, administrative mediation and judicial mediation.  We should explore new modes of mediation and solution in criminal cases of private prosecution and other light criminal cases and increase the use of mediation in criminal and civil cases, explore a reconciliation system of administrative litigation, promote reconciliation in civil cases and build and perfect plural resolution mechanisms for conflicts and disputes.
We should exert ourselves in integrating criminal policy of rendering both leniency and harshness into our work of punishing and preventing crimes.  We should check and reduce crimes at their sources.  Rendering both leniency and harshness in punishing the crimes has been the basic criminal policy formed in the long practice of our country in safeguarding public security.  Its basic meaning is treating crimes according to different circumstances.  Leniency is rendered where it should be rendered and harshness is dealt where it should be dealt.  In this way, harshness and leniency assist each other and punishment is rendered according to the specific crime committed.  We should not one-sidedly emphasize harshness which would result in an excessively broad target area and we should not one-sidedly emphasize leniency which would result in insufficient penalty.  At present, our country is in a period with high incidence of crimes and we must persevere in harshness.  As for criminals of serious crimes, we should achieve the deterrence through punishment.  At the same time, we should also adhere to the combination of penalty and education and make them mend their evil ways, follow the good ways and start anew, instead of turning them into anti-social elements who confront the society.  For people who commit light crimes and misdemeanors, delinquents, first-time offenders and casual offenders, we should make a good use of leniency policy and minimize social conflicts and convert negative factors into good ones as much as possible.
Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must set out by having in mind the perfection of legislation, judicial interpretation and penalty executing system and try to unify in a timely manner the standards of leniency and harshness and measure of law enforcement among the various work units in the political and legislative fields.  They should also enhance their guidance on some specific cases and establish the mechanism of supervision and checks and balances so as to ensure the criminal policy of rendering both leniency and harshness is correctly implemented in investigation, case cracking, approval of arrest, prosecution, sentencing according to the crime committed, supervision, transformation and all the other links in the law enforcement.
3.  Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs should, in accordance with the basic requirement that they should be the builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characters, build a strict, just political and legislative entity that enforces the law in a civilized way.  They should lay emphasis on studying and practicing the concept of scientific development to ensure the leading cadres are equipped with skills in leading scientific development and creating a new situation in the political and legislative causes.  In the entire political and legislative work,  the construction of the political and legislative ranks is the very basis and the construction of leading groups is the key.  Leading cadres in agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs carry with them the historic tasks of deeply carrying out and implementing the spirit of the 17th CPC National Congress, creating a new situation in the political and legislative cause and ensuring and promoting the smooth development of socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.  The most fundamental thing is they should take their guideline the concept of scientific development and exert themselves in changing the ideas and views that are not in line with the concept of scientific development and exert themselves in solving the most serious problems that affect and limit scientific development so that they can truly carry out and implement the concept of scientific development in various aspects of the political and legislative work and create political achievements that suit the requirements of the Party and the people, that meet the needs of economic and social development and that suit the law of development of political and legislative work.  In the activities of learning and practicing concept of scientific development, the leading cadres must become the models who are diligently in study and good at thinking.  They must also set an example of treating people’s wellbeing as the focus of their work and enforcing the law for the people.  They must be role models of seeking truth and doing practical things.  They must be the role models of liberating one’s mind and engaging in reforms and innovations.  They must also be the role models of self-discipline, honesty and diligence.  They must set an example of doing a good job in managing their groups and leading their ranks.
They should ensure the political and legislative ranks are loyal to the Party, the state, the people and the law with emphasis on education of concept in socialist rule of law.  In face of the influence from wrong political and juristic views, the negative effects of principle of interests in the market economy, the influence of feudal ideas of rule of man, strengthening ideological and political construction has its special importance.  The key to enhancing ideological and political construction is deeply unfolding education in the idea of socialist rule of law and making the policemen in general keep their high political awareness, awareness of the overall situation, awareness of responsibility, awareness of integrity and making them adhere to the principle that the cause of the Party, the interests of the people, the Constitution and the law are of paramount importance.   For law enforcement officers, they can stand clear-cut and firm politically only when they have the Party in their heart and mind, thus ensuring the Party’s course, guidelines and policies are fully and correctly carried out and implemented in the political and legislative work.  Only by having the people in their hearts can they eliminate their idea of privileges, their lack of courtesy, gluttony at clients’ expenses, taking, demanding, and coercing bribes and only by doing this can they ensure that they really serve the people in their law enforcement.  Only when they have the law in heart can they lead other people in learning the law, abiding by the law, applying the law and promoting the spirit of rule of law in the general public and safeguarding the uniformity, dignity and authority of the socialist rule of law in the entire society.  Only when they have the sense of justice in heart can they scrupulously abide by the professional ethics with its core being safeguarding the social fairness and justice and consolidate the ideological and ethical defensive line of fighting against corruption and degeneration, thus guaranteeing strict law enforcement and justice.
They should lay emphasis on enhancing the working abilities of the people in general and thus ensure the policemen in general can be competent in doing their jobs.  Abilities in enforcing the law is an important reflection of the Party’s abilities of governance in the agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs and is an important guarantee that the agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs can complete their various tasks.  The core to enhancing the abilities in enforcing the law is enhancing the general public’s working abilities.  Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must put all the more attention to the sources, reform the enrollment and job assignment system in political and legislative institutions and colleges, build the long-term mechanism that suits the reality in political and legislative affairs and that combines education, training, qualification examinations, awards, penalties and promotion that have political and legislative characteristics.  They should all the more lay emphasis on educating the policemen in general with typical cases so that they know the working methods and skills of the people in general.  They should all the more lay emphasis on training the policemen in general, especially the leading cadres, in handling public emergencies, thus making them enhance on a constant basis their abilities in handling people under special circumstance. They should all the more lay emphasis on learning from the society, the masses and organize policemen who are new to the agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs and policemen who have been working in government agencies for a long time to go down to grass-roots level to work as officers in the field so as to make them really understand the hardship the people there are experiencing, learn the state of mind and psychology of the people, increase their good feelings toward the people, learn how to deal with the ordinary people, make friends with them, thus enhancing their practical abilities in doing a good job among the people.
They should do research and build up a set of effective management systems and working mechanism and keep the experienced and highly professional police officers at the frontline of law enforcement and case handling and keep their mind on doing a good job in the grass-roots level, especially among the ordinary people.
They should lay emphasis on promoting judicial democracy to ensure the political and legislative ranks in the market economy will never go corrupt.  To ensure that the political and legislative ranks will never become corrupt, the most fundamental thing to do is follow the General Secretary Hu Jintao’s requirements on promoting judicial democracy and safeguard the ordinary people’s right to know, right to participate in, right to express their ideas and right to supervise the law enforcement, thus placing the law enforcement in the true sense of word under the supervision of the people.  In this way, we promote justice with democracy and win public’s trust in justice.  Agencies in charge of political and legislative affairs must make public as much as possible matters concerning activities of the police, procuratorate, trials and prisons and make efforts to make the power of the law enforcement agencies transparent under the sun.  They must listen earnestly and sincerely to the opinions and suggestions from delegates of the National People’s Congress and delegates from the Political Consultative Conferences and bring into play the role of people’s jurors, people’s supervisors and special supervisors.  They must establish a mechanism in which they can process, supervise, investigate and provide feedback for the informants’ tips, complaints and appeals.  They must take as their standard people’s satisfaction and establish and perfect a mechanism in which ordinary people can comment and evaluate the performance of the law enforcement to promote and establish a new form of police-people relationship, thus ensuring that the policemen in the political and legislative agencies really serve the people in their law enforcement.  They should further enhance the standardization in law enforcement and they should make the system more strict and the mechanism more robust to ensure the all-round supervision of the power in law enforcement and prevent power from going out of control and conduct going out of norm.
They should lay emphasis on fully bringing into play the role of the Party organizations and the Party members of the political and legislative agencies in law enforcement and case handling to ensure the law of the state is implemented correctly.  The Party organizations in the political and legislative agencies have a serious political responsibility in implementing the sacred mission of being the builder and defender of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics.  They should not only enhance their political, ideological and organizational leadership, they should also enhance their leadership and supervision in law enforcement, case handling and other professional jobs, thus truly bringing into play the role of being the leading core and the battle bastion.  The various units in political and legislative agencies should establish Party organizations that can make its professional departments strong and robust, and make it clear to people their leading and supervision functions on law enforcement, case handling and other professional fields.
In the meantime, they should enhance the standardization and systemization of Party organizations’ supervision on law enforcement.  In this way, they can both effectively supervise the law enforcement, case handling and other activities, they can also ensure that law enforcement departments can independently and justly exercise their functions according to law.  As the functional departments led by the Party in managing political and legislative affairs, the Party committee and political and legislative committee should enhance their study from macroscopic perspective the key law enforcement problems as pointed out by the people, organize special campaigns, establish and implement the law enforcement supervision mechanism that is linked to the Party committee, discipline committee and organizational departments.  In the meantime, they should also find and correct problems in a timely manner that occur during law enforcement, urge relevant work units to solve in an earnest manner problems involving law, complaints and petitions.  The policemen in political and legislative agencies who are party members, especially the leading cadres who are Party members should enhance their awareness of being Party members and practice Party spirit, emphasize their moral conduct and set a good example for other people and integrate the requirements for Party member policemen that they should be pioneers and role models into their law enforcement and legal services.  They should lead the people in abiding by the laws and vie with each other to be the pacesetter in law enforcement and strive to lead other policemen to enforce the law in a strict, just and civilized manner.
Note: This article is a speech delivered by Comrade Zhou Yongkang on June 16, 2008 at a seminar on the national political and legislative system studying and carrying out the spirit of 17th CPC National Congress and General Secretary Hu Jintao’s important speech.  There is some abridgement at the time of publication.  The article was originally carried in Issue 15 of the  magazine “Truth Seeking.”
Source: www.legaldaily.com.cn