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| | Chinese leaders rely on the MPS and the MSS as the primary forces for ensuring public order and controlling threats in the country. The MPS is responsible for domestic law enforcement, as well as overall maintenance of “social order,” riot control, and antiterror duties. Unlike the PAP | | Chinese leaders rely on the MPS and the MSS as the primary forces for ensuring public order and controlling threats in the country. The MPS is responsible for domestic law enforcement, as well as overall maintenance of “social order,” riot control, and antiterror duties. Unlike the PAP |
| | or PLA, however, the MPS provides oversight of local police forces, most of which are controlled and funded by local and provincial officials. Locally hired Chinese police forces are generally regarded as poorly paid, poorly trained, and corrupt. | | or PLA, however, the MPS provides oversight of local police forces, most of which are controlled and funded by local and provincial officials. Locally hired Chinese police forces are generally regarded as poorly paid, poorly trained, and corrupt. |
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| | + | ===Legal system=== |
| | + | The government's efforts to promote rule of law appeared to be advancing, but impossible under the political structure constructed around the Communist Party. After the Cultural Revolution, China's leaders aimed to develop a legal system to restrain abuses of official authority and revolutionary excesses. In 1982, the Communist's National People's Congress adopted a new state constitution that emphasized the rule of law under which even party leaders are theoretically held accountable. |
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| | + | Since 1979, when the drive to establish a functioning legal system began, more than 300 laws and regulations, most of them in the economic area, have been promulgated. The use of mediation committees—informed groups of citizens who resolve about 90% of China's civil disputes and some minor criminal cases at no cost to the parties—is one innovative device. There are more than 800,000 such committees in both rural and urban areas. |
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| | + | Legal reform became a government priority in the 1990s. Legislation designed to modernize and professionalize the nation's lawyers, judges, and prisons was enacted. <!--The 1994 Administrative Procedure Law allows citizens to sue officials for abuse of authority or malfeasance. In addition, the criminal law and the criminal procedures laws were amended to introduce significant reforms.--> The criminal law amendments abolished the crime of "counter-revolutionary" activity, although many persons are still incarcerated for that crime. Criminal procedures reforms also encouraged the establishment of a more transparent, adversarial trial process. The Chinese constitution and laws provide for fundamental human rights, including due process, but these are often ignored in practice. In addition to other judicial reforms, the Constitution was amended in 2004 to include the protection of individual human rights and legally-obtained private property, but it is unclear how those provisions will be implemented. Although new criminal and civil laws have provided additional safeguards to citizens, previously debated political reforms, including expanding elections to the township level, and other legal reforms, including the reform of the reeducation through labor (RTL) system, have been put on hold. However, it is still impossible for certain groups to defend themselves as the legal system is constructed around the Communist Party. |
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| | ==Chinese Communist Party== | | ==Chinese Communist Party== |