Strengthening the rule of law will be a long journey
China's own concept, vastly different from the West's, is a work in progress, but it holds the key to reducing corruption and inequality
Today, China's top officials gather in Beijing for a four-day key meeting devoted to the rule of law and to seal the fate of Zhou Yongkang, formerly one of the most powerful men in the country.
Over the past week, mainland media has been hailing the meeting's historic significance without any sense of irony in linking the two developments.
Until 2012, Zhou was the Politburo Standing Committee member in charge of the mainland's entire legal system including police, prosecutors, judges and the intelligence services. Zhou was the face and symbol of the law .
As the fourth plenum of the Communist Party's Central Committee is most likely to decide to expel Zhou from the party before turning him over to criminal prosecution when the meeting ends on Thursday, leaders will have to promise more measures to strengthen the rule of law.
On this point, the mainland leadership has repeatedly made it clear that the Chinese concept of the rule of law is very much different from the Western version that advocates separation of powers and an independent judiciary.
So what can people expect from the meeting? A lot or very little, depending on one's expectations.
For the optimists, the meeting is a landmark effort for the mainland leadership to fight corruption, promote clean government, and push for social justice, part of President Xi Jinping's drive to "put power within the cage of regulations".
Indeed, the rampant abuse of power in the absence of checks and balances has led to widespread official corruption that in turn has fuelled social discontent over growing income disparity and increasingly violent land disputes .
Economically, corruption and excessive government meddling have resulted in blind investments in white elephant projects and industrial capacity, heavy pollution, a massive property bubble and lack of innovation.
More importantly, there is an increasing sense of a lack of justice among ordinary mainlanders because of rampant corruption within the country's legal system as judges, prosecutors and police can be easily bribed or their decisions can be easily swayed by local officials who control their budgets.
Following the plenum, the authorities are expected to speed up efforts to curb officials' meddling in judicial decisions by having local courts report to more senior judicial bodies instead of to local governments, and by recruiting a greater number of legal professionals to the judiciary.
The main takeaway from the meeting should be the further consolidation of "recentralising power" away from the local authorities - a process started by Xi as soon as he came to power nearly two years ago.
For the pessimists, recentralisation is simply part of Xi's plans to consolidate his power and strengthen the rule of the Communist Party.
Only in 1997 did the party leadership agree to incorporate the rule of law into its communiqué at the 15th congress, and in 1999 the clause was written into the constitution.
Ever since, leaders have periodically tried to promote the constitution, arguing that no one should be above it .
But the party's ambivalence towards the constitution is best illustrated by a question posed in the 1980s when Peng Zhen , a party elder and former chairman of the National People's Congress, was asked which idea was superior - the party or the law.
Peng was hard pressed to give a clear answer, and since then no leader has attempted to follow his lead.
Before it is clearly answered, China still has a long way to go in terms of rule of law.
