The growing threat of China’s lawfare

In March, Qi Shi, the official journal of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s article, in which he explains how to construct the Chinese socialist legal system. This is an important development. Compared with his predecessors, Xi’s ideas of law are more deceitful because they use familiar terms such as “rule of law,” “law-based” and “justice.” In practice, Xi increasingly uses law as a weapon to crack down on dissent to ensure regime security, while simultaneously employing it as a weapon in the CCP’s quest for world hegemony.

China’s legal theory and practice are copied from the Soviet Union. Like the Soviets, the CCP’s dictators are never shy of saying that law is the party’s instrument to destroy enemies. The party’s absolute control over China’s judicial system is the principal component of Xi’s lawfare strategy. He reiterates that “if the party is above the law, or the law above the party, it is a political trap and a false proposition.” The leadership of the party is the soul of China’s rule of law and only the party can effectively advance it. In short, the Communist Party always remains above the law.

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