China’s top prosecutors directed to uphold CCP, not law: Report

Beijing: China’s recent National Procurators’ Meeting — the country’s highest gathering of prosecutors — followed the usual political rituals, with participants called on not to uphold justice, but to defend the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Instructions were given not to uphold the law, but to enforce the Chinese President “Xi Jinping thought”, and not to defend citizens’ rights, but to safeguard the state’s ideological security, a report said on Friday.

“On January 19, Beijing hosted the annual National Procurators’ Meeting — China’s highest gathering of prosecutors, though ‘prosecutors’ may no longer be the most accurate job description. Judging from the speeches that are now being published in various outlets, they have been reassigned to a different profession: ideological clergy. Their task is not so much to enforce the law as to enforce the correct thought, and the correct thought, as always, comes with a proper name attached,” a report in online news magazine ‘Bitter Winter’ detailed.

“The meeting opened with the usual invocation: a solemn call to ‘thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on comprehensively governing the country according to law, on political‑legal work, and on procuratorial work.’ The 2025 work summary and 2026 task list were presented. Still, the real agenda was simpler: prosecutors must ‘uphold Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guiding principle,’ ‘firmly support the ‘Two Establishes’,’ and ‘resolutely achieve the ‘Two Upholds’.’ In other words, the rule of law begins with the rule of Xi,” it added.

According to the report, Procurator-General Ying Yong delivered the keynote, lauding the past year’s achievements, attributing them entirely to “the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core.” The prosecutors’ achievement, he said, was not due to legal knowledge, investigative talent, or judicial independence but because of “the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”

Ying listed Western “constitutionalism,” “separation of powers,” and “judicial independence” as forbidden doctrines, warning that these are “erroneous viewpoints.”

The report said that the meeting concluded with a call for the prosecutors to “study, think, and practice Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law,” which can be interpreted as “absorb, internalise, and apply the correct ideology.”

Slamming the discussions on the event, the report further said, “If justice is blind, China’s prosecutors have been instructed to remove the blindfold, check which way the political wind is blowing, and proceed accordingly. The rule of law, in this system, is not a shield protecting the people from power — it is a tool ensuring the people remain obedient to it.”

IANS