Safeguard Political Security, Social Order and Peaceful Lives

Safeguard Political Security, Social Order and Peaceful Lives* 

January 15, 2019 

We must follow the guidance of the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, uphold the absolute leadership of the CPC over judicial, prosecuting and public security work, and adhere to the people-centered philosophy of development. We should accelerate the modernization of social governance, comprehensive and in-depth reform in the judicial, prosecuting and public security fields, and the development of a consistent, specialized and professional contingent of judicial, prosecuting and public security personnel with revolutionary spirit. Working in these fields, we must faithfully fulfill our duties, have the courage to shoulder responsibilities and do what is needed, and be keen on reform and innovation. We must fulfill our duties to ensure our country's political security, social stability, social equity and justice, and a happy life for the people. In so doing, we will open a new chapter in judicial, prosecuting and public security work.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Party Central Committee has been attaching more importance to judicial, prosecuting and public security work, making a string of major decisions and implementing a series of major measures, thereby safeguarding political security, social stability and the peaceful life of the people and promoting sustained and sound economic and social development. This results from the strong leadership of the Central Committee and the concerted effort of the entire Party and all the Chinese people and embodies wisdom and hard work of all those working in the judicial, prosecuting and public security systems.

We must put into practice our Party's mass line and stick to the principle that social governance is for the people. We must do well in combining the best of our Party's traditions with new technologies and new tools, be creative in improving the mechanisms for organizing and mobilizing the people and for bringing them benefits, serving them and addressing their concerns, and turn the people's wisdom and ingenuity into an inexhaustible source of innovation in social governance. We should strengthen law enforcement and the judicature in key areas concerning the people's immediate interests to ensure that our people can enjoy bluer skies, cleaner water, fresher air, safer food, convenient traffic and more harmonious social order.

We should be adept at transforming the leadership of the Party and the strengths of Chinese socialism into efficient social governance, and improve the law-based social governance model under which Party committee exercises leadership, government assumes responsibility, all sectors join the effort, and the public take part, so as to establish a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests. We should innovate and improve coordination of our efforts to ensure law and order, pool the resources of judicial, prosecuting and public security systems and relevant departments, and foster a positive environment in which problems are jointly tackled, work is coordinated, and peace and security are jointly created. Leading officials of all provinces and equivalent administrative units and central departments must implement a leadership responsibility system and fulfill their duties in maintaining local stability and safeguarding local security. We must further promote innovation in community governance and build a vigorous and efficient new system for grassroots-level governance.

We need to promote the core socialist values, strengthen political and moral education, improve the nomination and commendation of role models who act bravely for justice, and let integrity and justice prevail in the whole society. We must do everything in accordance with the law, and ensure that law-abiding people feel proud and valued and that law-breakers and unethical individuals suffer the consequences of their wrongdoing. We need to improve mechanisms for community-level self-governance, motivate the enthusiasm of urban and rural residents, enterprises, public institutions and social organizations in self-governance, and build a community of social governance in which everyone has and fulfills their responsibilities. We need to improve public psychological services and related counseling and crisis intervention, and cultivate self-esteem, self-confidence, rationality, composure and amity among our people. We need to accelerate the development of a crime prevention and control system that is multifaceted and IT-based.

Gangland forces are malignant tumors in society, causing severe disruption to economic and social order and eroding the very foundations of our Party's governance. We must unswervingly pursue the goals of the three-year campaign against organized crime, improve our strategies and measures, adjust the focus of our efforts according to specific conditions in different phases and fields, and maintain an overwhelming momentum. We need to focus on major cases of organized crime and target the gangs' financial sources, connections and protective umbrellas, make real and meticulous efforts on both prevention and punishment, address both the symptoms and root causes, and ensure that we can deliver long-term concrete results.

We need to make new breakthroughs in the reform of the judicial, prosecuting and public security systems from an overall perspective and quicken our pace in establishing and optimizing judicial, prosecuting and public security departments that collaborate to achieve high efficiency. We need to improve the allocation of the functions and powers of these departments and establish a mechanism by which the departments all fulfill their duties, fully cooperate with each other, and effectively check on each other. We need to carry forward the reform of the internal institutions of judicial, prosecuting and public security agencies, and improve their division of functions, institutional setup and staff establishment, so as to make them more efficient. We should enforce judicial accountability in all respects to enable judicial personnel to concentrate their energy on fulfilling duties and handling cases well, so as to improve judicial performance, efficiency and credibility. We should focus on issues of major concern to the public, lose no time in improving checks on and oversight over the exercise of power, and resolutely prevent lax law enforcement, miscarriages of justice, law-breaking by law-enforcement personnel, and judicial corruption. We should continue to reform the litigation system, separate complicated, major or time-consuming cases from simple, minor or easy ones, and promote wide application of big data, artificial intelligence and other new technologies in our judicial work.

As providers of various public services, judicial, prosecuting and public security bodies should work hard to provide services that are universally available, equally accessible, convenient, efficient, intelligent and targeted. We should continue to reduce the requirements on document submission for the convenience of citizens, accelerate the reform aiming to provide cross-region case filing services, and facilitate the remote and coordinated handling of cross-region cases, so as to improve off-site litigation. We should continue to build a public legal services system, accelerate the integration of legal resources including lawyers, notarization, judicial authentication, arbitration, judicial offices and mediation, so as to establish an all-encompassing legal services network that is accessible anywhere and anytime. We should work faster to build systems protecting the security and safety of overseas Chinese citizens and entities, and safeguard their lawful rights and interests.

We should take a clear stand in giving top priority to raising political awareness, and work hard to build a strong contingent of legal professionals that can be relied on by the Party Central Committee and can meet the needs of the people. We should emphasize theoretical education, and guide police officers to study and thoroughly understand the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This will help them maintain their political commitment, think in terms of the general picture, follow the core leadership of the CPC Central Committee, and act in accordance with its requirements. It will give them full confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and ensure that they will resolutely adhere to the Two Upholds, and never waver in building and safeguarding Chinese socialism. Judicial, prosecuting and public security departments should be strict with themselves, remove all irregularities despite pains, and ferret out any rotten apples with the strongest will and the most resolute actions.

All judicial, prosecuting and public security bodies should attach greater importance to developing their professional abilities. This requires an emphasis on combat effectiveness, practical usefulness and real effects, so as to comprehensively improve the officials' ability to apply laws and policies, prevent and control risks, engage with the people, utilize technology, and guide public opinion. Among our state agencies, judicial, prosecuting and public security systems are the ones which contribute the most and sacrifice the most during times of peace. We need to treat them with special care, and encourage and support people working in these systems, ensuring their legitimate income and wellbeing, giving them humanistic care, and doing our best to help them solve their problems, so that they can fully, actively and confidently apply themselves to their work.

We need to strengthen the leadership and ranks of the judicial, prosecuting and public security systems and promote the development of primary-level Party organizations. Party organizations and leaders at all levels should support the work of judicial, prosecuting and public security departments and support them in wielding power independently and impartially. All Party committees and their commissions for judicial, prosecuting and public security affairs at various levels should give priority to steering political orientation, coordinating departments' duties, commanding judicial, prosecuting and public security work, strengthening training of officials working in these systems, supervising the performance of their duties in accordance with the law, and creating an environment for impartial law enforcement. They should improve the systems and mechanisms for supervision on political integrity, maintenance of public order, law enforcement, and discipline and conduct.

* Main points of the speech at the Central Conference on Judicial, Prosecuting and Public Security Work.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)