Country speeding up creation of favorable legal environment for development amid two sessions' opening

With the opening on Sunday of the second session of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, and the start of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress on Tuesday, China has convened the two sessions - one of the country's most important political events - in Beijing.

Members of the CPPCC, China's top political advisory body, and deputies to the NPC, the top legislature, are expected to discuss key issues concerning China's development, including rule of law.

Rule of law in spotlight as key issue

Fu Yuhang, a deputy to the 13th NPC, said improvements in the rule of law, especially regarding ecological and environmental protection, will be a lively topic during the two sessions.

Fu, a water pollution prevention researcher from Sichuan province, has been keeping an eye on the legislation as well as enforcement of environmental protection law over the past few years, seeing these as the key to contributing to the country's rule of law.

"I will continue to focus on the sector, and I hope more pollution problems can be regulated by rule of law as soon as possible," she added.

China is accelerating the creation of a favorable legal environment for the country's reform and development, with the top leadership making it clear that rule of law is the best environment for business.

The country's top court unveiled a five-year plan for judicial reform on Wednesday that has put fostering a better legal environment by adopting more innovative measures high on the agenda.

Courts across the country have been told to improve legal services for the country's major development plans, such as the strategies for the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster. They also must better solve international commercial disputes related to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the guideline on judicial reform of the Supreme People's Court for 2019-23.

The reform plan was released two days after the central leadership stressed the significance of the rule of law as the guarantee for consolidating foundations, stabilizing expectations and bringing long-term benefits.

At the second meeting of the Commission for Overall Law-based Governance of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Feb 25, President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for efforts to create a favorable legal environment for China's reform, development and stability.

The experiences drawn from reform and opening-up over the past 40 years have shown that work related to reform, development and stability will not succeed without the rule of law, Xi said. The further that reform and opening-up goes, the more important the rule of law becomes, he added.

According to a vision laid out at the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017, rule of law for the country, government and society will basically be in place by 2035.

Rule of law is the most favorable environment for business, the meeting emphasized, calling for equal protection of the property rights and legitimate interests of all market entities, as well as efforts to train more legal professionals and develop more services for foreign-related legal affairs, in order to maintain and support the country's high-level opening-up.

The meeting on Feb 25 stressed efforts to maintain and promote sustained and sound economic growth through the high-quality development of legislation. Unified fundamental laws regarding foreign capital must be formulated, early arrangements must be made for the legal authorization for areas designated as reform and opening-up pilot zones, and a comprehensive and coordinated approach must be adopted in making laws regarding intellectual property rights protection, biosafety, land system reform and ecological civilization.

"We must keep in mind how important the rule of law is in promoting the country's economic growth and policy implementation," Hu Shihao, director of the judicial reform office of the Supreme People's Court, said on Wednesday.

Rule of law in spotlight as key issue

In addition, the top court has picked up its pace. Since the beginning of this year, bankruptcy courts have been set up in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, to effectively help enterprises that are heavily in debt to quit the market or to restructure.

In the past three years, judicial protection of private enterprises and entrepreneurs was also strengthened, and a series of cases related to wrongful conviction were corrected after reviews by higher courts.

Based on these achievements, the new judicial reform released by the top court calls for courts to set up a regular review system to overturn wrongful convictions involving enterprises and to make the results public in a timely manner.

"We'll also specify judicial rules to ensure that key policies, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and supply-side structural reform, can be implemented more effectively, and litigants from home and abroad can be given a sound business environment," said Li Shaoping, vice-president of the top court.

Liu Junhai, a professor of commercial law at Renmin University of China, said a favorable legal environment will encourage more people, including foreigners, to invest in China and will also ensure safety in the financial industry.

"We need to promote sound economic growth with high-quality legislation and better law enforcement," he added.

Ruan Chuansheng, a law professor at the Shanghai Administration Institute, said judicial reform gives a clear image for courts to help improve the legal environment, adding it is also useful to enhance public awareness of the rule of law.