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China Chapter 13. Criminal Justice and Public Security
SWEEPING REFORMS IN CHINA'S legal system were announced at the
Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress held in June
and July 1979. New laws on courts, procuratorates, crime, and
trials were promulgated. The changes, effective as of January 1,
1980, reflected the leadership's conviction that if economic
modernization was to succeed, the people--who had suffered through
the humiliations, capricious arrests, and massive civil disorders
of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76)--had to be assured that they
no longer would be abused or incarcerated on the basis of hearsay
or arbitrary political pronouncements.
From the perspective of the leaders of the Chinese Communist
Party, moreover, codified laws and a strengthened legal system were
seen as important means of preventing a possible return of radical
policies and a repetition of the era when the Gang of Four ruled by
fiat and inconsistent party regulations. Aside from establishing a
legal code that would be more difficult for corrupt officials to
manipulate, the new laws made the courts responsible for applying
all but minor sanctions and made the police answerable to the
courts. Procuratorates, which had fallen into disuse during the
Cultural Revolution, were reinstituted to prosecute criminal cases,
review court decisions, and investigate the legality of actions
taken by the police and other government organizations. A greater
role for the courts and independent investigations were expected to
make it more difficult to introduce politically colored testimony
into the courtrooms.
Hard labor still was the most common form of punishment in
China in the 1980s. The penal system stressed reform rather than
retribution, and it was expected that productive labor would reduce
the penal institutions' cost to society. Even death sentences could
be stayed by two-year reprieve. If a prisoner was judged to have
reformed during that period, his or her sentence could be commuted
to life or a fixed term at labor.
Neighborhood committees in the 1980s continued to be heavily
involved in law enforcement and mediation of disputes at the local
level. Among the enforcement procedures these committees used to
influence both thought and behavior were criticism and collective
responsibility.
In the period between 1980 and 1987, important progress was
made in replacing the rule of men with the rule of law. Laws
originally passed in 1979 and earlier were amended and augmented,
and law institutes and university law departments that had been
closed during the Cultural Revolution were opened to train lawyers
and court personnel. It was only a beginning, but important steps
had been taken in developing a viable legal system and making the
government and the courts answerable to an objective standard.
Data as of July 1987
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