ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relation between the criminal justice treatment of the FLG and the struggle for the ‘rule of law’ in China. CCP’s political handling of its so-called Falungong problem has had a largely negative impact on criminal justice reform, particularly as it was originally envisaged in the major revisions to the CPL96 and the CL97. The following analysis parses the formal criminal justice response to the FLG, paying particular attention to whether or not the syntax of this response respects the 1996-7 reform synthesis of public order and human rights protection.1
Unfortunately, the FLG issue has not been a happy chapter in the struggle to create a ‘rule of law’ in China. The treatment of the FLG serves as a distressing reminder of the complicated paradox of legal reform and state power under the CCP’s zhengfa system.2
