On October 28, the China Law Society released the Annual Report on the Rule of Law in China (2024), available in a Chinese–English edition. This marks the seventeenth consecutive year that the report on developments in China’s rule of law has been made available to both domestic and international audiences.

The report focuses on the study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and provides a comprehensive, systematic account of the principal achievements in advancing socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics in 2024. The full text, totaling approximately 60,000 Chinese characters, is organized into 16 sections: Preface; the instruction issued by General Secretary Xi Jinping in January 2024 on judicial and law enforcement work, “Modernizing Judicial and Law Enforcement Work to Support and Serve Chinese Modernization,” together with the “Letter from Xi Jinping to the Ninth National Congress of the China Law Society”; the work of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee in strengthening constitutional implementation and oversight, as well as their legislative and supervisory functions; law-based administration; deepening reform of judicial and law enforcement institutions; the work of the courts, procuratorates, public security organs, and administrative justice authorities; legal safeguards for human rights; intellectual property protection; rule-of-law development in ecological civilization; legal education and jurisprudential research; legal culture; foreign-related rule of law; Conclusion; “A Statistical Overview of the Rule of Law in China, 2024”; “Chronicle of ‘First-in-the-Nation’ Initiatives in 2024”; and Appendix.

According to the report, in 2024 the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully convened, at which the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization was adopted. The Resolution made systematic arrangements for improving the socialist rule-of-law system with Chinese characteristics, underscored the rule of law as a critical safeguard for Chinese modernization, and required that all dimensions of state governance be advanced in accordance with the law.

In the same year, conferences were held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the National People’s Congress and the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, further demonstrating the strengths of China’s political institutions and consolidating consensus on developing whole-process people’s democracy.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted a decision to gradually postpone the statutory retirement age, thereby providing institutional support for adapting to China’s evolving demographic trends and for fully developing and utilizing human resources.

The Supreme People’s Court promulgated and implemented the Sixth Five-Year Reform Outline of the People’s Courts (2024–2028), further deepening judicial reform in a comprehensive manner, improving mechanisms to ensure impartial adjudication, and accelerating the development of a fair, efficient, and authoritative socialist judiciary.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the Guidelines on Comprehensively Deepening Procuratorial Reform and Further Strengthening Procuratorial Work in the New Era, firmly anchoring the core objective of ensuring that the people experience fairness and justice in every judicial case and setting out a roadmap for the high-quality development of procuratorial work.

China recorded a year-on-year decrease of 25.7 percent in criminal cases, the lowest level since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Public security organs remained steadfast in safeguarding public wellbeing and order. Notably, landmark progress was achieved in combating transnational telecommunications fraud, steadily enhancing the public’s sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

Oriented toward the legislative imperatives of comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization, the Ministry of Justice reviewed 64 priority legislative items over the year, thereby providing robust rule-of-law safeguards for high-quality development. The institutional framework for administrative reconsideration was further improved, and its role as the primary channel for resolving administrative disputes became increasingly salient: 90.3 percent of cases subjected to administrative reconsideration did not proceed to litigation or petition.

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Guidelines on Implementing the Strategy of Prioritizing Employment and Promoting High-Quality, Sufficient Employment, which support and regulate the development of new forms of employment. Coverage under the occupational injury protection scheme for workers in new forms of employment reached 10.3799 million people. The Supreme People’s Court promulgated guiding cases on labor disputes involving new forms of employment, thereby safeguarding the development of the new economy.

Judicial and law enforcement institutions promoted the creation of a law-based, market-oriented, and internationalized business environment. They upheld the “two unswervinglys”—to consolidate and develop the public sector and to encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector—thus advancing the high-quality development of the private economy.

China promulgated and implemented its first comprehensive, specialized legislation on the online protection of minors—the Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace—aimed at fostering an online environment conducive to the physical and mental wellbeing of minors and protecting their lawful rights and interests.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment standardized the linkage between ecological and environmental damage compensation mechanisms and procuratorial public interest litigation, thereby strengthening the “protective net” for the ecological environment and fostering harmony between humanity and nature.

Law schools and research institutions further implemented the Guidelines on Strengthening Legal Education and Jurisprudential Research in the New Era, actively building an autonomous Chinese legal knowledge system and refining practice-oriented training mechanisms in legal education.

China advanced the implementation of its unilateral visa-free transit policy, extending the permissible stay for eligible transit passengers to 240 hours and progressively increasing the number of ports of entry and exit.

Efforts to promote the domestic rule of law and the foreign-related rule of law proceeded in a coordinated manner, accelerating the development of the institutional framework and capacity for foreign-related rule of law and transforming the strengths of the rule of law into institutional competitiveness in opening up.

The report underscores that China’s progress in advancing the rule of law has produced a series of new and historic achievements, fundamentally attributable to the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, particularly Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. These developments reflect a heightened sense of responsibility and proactive engagement in the legal domain on the new journey in the New Era, inaugurating a new chapter in the pursuit of a higher-level Peaceful China and Law-Based China.

The report further emphasizes that 2025—the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan—constitutes a pivotal juncture for upholding the unity of reform and the rule of law, advancing comprehensive deepening of reform along law-based pathways, and promoting Chinese modernization. It is also the year for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan and marks the fifth anniversary of the formal articulation of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. The period covered by the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) will constitute a critical phase for consolidating foundational capacities and making comprehensive progress toward the fundamental realization of socialist modernization, occupying a pivotal position in connecting past achievements with future advancement in this historic trajectory. We must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and fully implement the guiding principles from the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, as well as those from the Second through Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee; and to study in depth and put into practice Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law while pursuing a holistic approach to national security. These efforts will provide robust legal safeguards for laying a solid foundation for a successful start to the 15th Five-Year Plan, advance comprehensive law-based governance and the building of a higher-level socialist rule-of-law state, and contribute new and greater achievements to building a great country and promoting the comprehensive rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization.