When Laws Are Enforced, the State Is Well Governed: Knowing China Through the Classics

During its upcoming plenary session from October 26 to 29, the CPC Central Committee will review a draft decision on advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance.

On September 5, 2014, at a gathering marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National People's Congress, President Xi Jinping quoted these lines by Eastern Han Dynasty thinker Wang Fu. Stressing that the vitality and authority of the law lie in its implementation, he urged state administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs to fulfill their statutory duties, and resolutely correct lax enforcement and impunity.

Origin of the Classic Quote

Wang Fu was an Eastern Han Dynasty philosopher, known as one of the "Three Sages of Later Han". While living as a recluse, and although he never held office, he collected his critiques of the politics of his time in the Qianfu Lun (Comments of a Recluse). In the chapter On Amnesty, he denounced the court's practice of granting frequent amnesties, which he saw as emboldening criminals and eroding the authority of the law. In writing "Strict implementation of laws leads to order, while lax implementation of laws leads to disorder" he expressed his conviction that how laws are executed is closely related to a country's stability.