Post-Mao China: The Rule of Law?

Abstract

Legal change is clearly the area of great achievement in post-Mao China, when compared with Mao’s China. Post-Mao legislative reforms and changes have led many China analysts to declare that the post-Mao regime has followed the model of some East Asian authoritarian countries and moved toward the “rule of law, “a process which has brought about a fundamental change in China’s legal system. However a careful examination of the evidence will suggest that the “rule of law” is only an illusion or wishful thinking that contradicts the central reality of the post-Mao legal system and misinterprets the nature of post-Mao legal changes and reforms. The assessment of the change in a legal system should not depend on how many laws have been passed but rather on how these laws operate within what kind of legal framework; who defines the principles, norms, and rules of the legal framework; and who makes the law The latter rather than the former determines the nature of the legal system, which actually constitutes one key aspect of the Chinese communist regime. The findings of this work suggest that the post-Mao legal and legislative reforms have not significantly changed the core norms and principles of the communist regime and the fundamental purpose of the Chinese communist legislature and law and therefore have not brought about a systemic or fundamental change in the legal system. All the fundamentals of the Chinese communist constitution and the nature of the Chinese communist legal system remain unchanged despite the lawmaking achievements made in the last decades.