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China overhauls legal system, at least on paper

While addressing a corrupt court system, the Communist Party remains firmly in control.

By Ed Adamczyk

BEIJING, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A Chinese Communist Party meeting concluded Thursday with an endorsement of sweeping changes in the country's legal framework.

The four-day meeting in Beijing of the party's Central Committee addressed dissatisfaction with what is regarded as widespread corruption and politicization of China's courts. While the changes could lead to a less arbitrary legal system and a more impartial method of settling disputes to prevent angry litigants from organizing public protest, analysts said the courts will clearly remain under control of the party.

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"This is something that has to be done if the party wants to maintain legitimacy, because legitimacy is not just made by abstract concepts and buzzwords," Flora Sapio, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told The New York Times. "You have to deliver something to the people."

She added President Xi Jinping saw no advantage to having a judiciary system that could override the party's policies, particularly in cases that could cause social conflict.

A statement following the meeting was lacking in specific changes, but reinforced the concept that the Communist Party would not cede power to the courts.

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"Socialist rule of law must uphold the party's leadership, and party leadership must rely on socialist rule of law. Only with government according to the law, and implementation of rule of law under the party's leadership can the people truly be masters of their own home," it said in part.

"The basic political system (in China) is incompatible with rule of law. They mainly want to use the law to control society and control the public," said Teng Biao, a rights lawyer. In a commentary published this week in a Hong Kong website, Oriental Daily News, he compared the government reference to "rule of law" to "a rooster dreaming that he can lay eggs."

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