The new issue of "China Comment," a leading Chinese fortnightly devoted to current political affairs, will publish a lengthy signed article recalling the decade-long efforts made by President Jiang Zemin to implement the strategy of governing the nation by law.

The article is entitled "On the Way to Governing by Law -- Jiang Zemin and China's Advancement Toward a Socialist Rule of Law."

The article begins with a news conference held in Beijing on September 26, 1989, a few months after Jiang was made general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In reply to a question posed by a New York Times correspondent, Jiang announced that the Party should never replace the government and the law, pledging, "We must stick to the principle of governing by law."

Since then, the third generation leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Jiang at the core has spared no efforts to push forward the strategy of governing by law, the foundation of which was laid down by Deng Xiaoping, core of the second generation Party leadership.

Jiang advocated law lectures in which legal experts were invited to equip senior Party and government officials with basic legal knowledge and offer legal advice and consultation on the country's social and economic situation.

The first such lecture was held on December 9, 1994, and since then Jiang has presided over all 10 subsequent lectures, occasionally speaking on his own views on key issues linked to the rule of law.

On February 8, 1996, at the third lecture, Jiang said that increasing the role of law in running the country, an important part of Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, is an important principle in managing state affairs.

One month later, at the fourth session of the Eighth National People's Congress, China's top legislature, the principle of governing the nation by law and building a socialist country ruled by law was included in the Ninth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (1996-2000) and the Long-Range Objectives to the Year 2010.

How to better protect and realize the fundamental interests of the people has been a theoretical and practical issue for the CPC ever since it became the ruling party in October 1949, the article

says.

The first generation of CPC leadership led by Mao Zedong founded a regime of "people's democratic dictatorship" and created the great cause of a socialist legal system for New China, but for a certain period, especially the "Great Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976), China's legal system was destroyed.

Since the late 1970s, the Deng Xiaoping-led second generation leadership has been engaged in the drive to build a socialist legal system in order to protect democracy for the people. Deng often said that a legal system is more reliable.

The third generation leadership has inherited and developed Deng's thinking on democracy and the rule of law, and has accelerated China's advancement on the road to building a socialist legal system, according to the article.

In his report to the 15th Party Congress, Jiang pledged to "further extend the scope of socialist democracy and improve the socialist legal system, and governing the country according to law and making it a socialist country ruled by law."

In the report, Jiang reiterated that "it is imperative that we uphold and improve this fundamental political system, instead of copying any Western model. This is of decisive importance for upholding leadership by the Party and the socialist system, and realizing people's democracy."

China must adhere to the leadership of the CPC, the socialist system, and the people's congress system, he said, stressing that this is a road compatible with the situation in China for building a socialist country ruled by law.

Jiang advocates building a clean and powerful army of law enforcers, according to the article. In the past few months, a number of meritorious judicial officials have been rewarded, while some corrupt court officials were punished.

Jiang has taken lead to learn about law, and has boosted knowledge of the law across the country, the article concludes.