ABSTRACT
Assuming that Mao's revolutionary idealism had resulted in the “lawless” Cultural Revolution, the new primary leader Deng Xiaoping, who had been attacked during the Cultural Revolution, called for legal reforms in 1979. 1 At the Third Plenary Session held in late 1978, Ye Jianying, the president of the National People's Congress (NPC), claimed that since the establishment of the PRC, China had never had a decent legal system. In his view, that was the main reason the “Gang of Four” had been able to destroy the socialist legal system, causing numerous deaths of innocent people. Ye concluded that “all nations should have a legal system with stability, continuity, and immense authority.” 2 Peng Zhen, the chair of the NPC Legal System Committee, also emphasized the role of law and seemed to challenge Party dominance when he said that law was more important than the CCP central committee. 3
