BUMPY ROAD AHEAD

While the mindset of people at grassroots level is changing, experts are calling for change among law executors.

China's famous legal expert Jiang Ping believed that however the rule of law was stressed, power abuse is still a common phenomenon in China. Some officials took the lead in violating laws.

Ren Runhou, former vice governor of Shanxi, who was caught earlier this year, had a theory. He thought that power could generate profit, while money could buy power. Once visiting a coal mine, he asked the staff members "if I give you the right of sales, the right to hire people and the right to purchase material, will you earn another 100 million yuan (about 16.3 million U.S. dollars) for the mine?"

Improvement of laws and regulations is another necessity for rule of law.

A unnamed procurator told Xinhua that some clauses were not precise with loopholes. "Such as sentencing," he said. "A corrupt official who took 100,000 yuan might be sentenced to death, while another who embezzled millions of yuan could only be jailed for 15 years."

The Haimen city of east China's Jiangsu province launched a campaign to check the implementation of laws. So far they have discovered six laws out of 60 which lost efficacy at grassroots level. Another 13 were vague, unreasonable or not feasible enough, or contradicted other regulations.

"Seeing these problems, people will gradually lose confidence in the rule of law," said a local official who declined to be named.

Experts have pinned their hope on the upcoming Fourth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee, which is set to open next Monday. The rule of law is expected to be the central theme.