China to put more emphasis on law enforcement

BEIJING - China will stress law enforcement even more after the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has been established in the country, legislator Li Fei said Thursday.

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"First of all, we will continue to publicize the knowledged of laws in the whole society and tell the public to protect their legitimate rights by using legal weapons," Li told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Li serves as vice director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, and a member of the NPC Law Committee.

He said government officials and civil servants are the most important group of people who demonstrate law enforcement.

"We have set up various oversight mechanisms to supervise their work, such as the oversight system by the people's congresses," he said.

In addition, China has other oversight mechanisms, including the disciplinary inspection within the Communist Party of China, supervision from the public and the media, he said.

"All those are practised to ensure that civil servants at various levels strictly enforce laws," he added.

China's legislative goal of forming a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics by 2010 was set forth at the Fifteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1997.X   Top legislator Wu Bangguo announced Thursday that the goal had been fulfilled "on schedule," hailing it as a "major milestone" in the history of the development of the country's socialist democratic legal system.

"The formation of a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics has generally solved the problem of having laws for people to follow," Wu said while delivering a work report of the 11the NPC Standing Committee.

He said the problem of ensuring that laws are observed and strictly enforced and that lawbreakers are prosecuted has become more pronounced and pressing.