Chinese President Xi Jinping underscored the need to continue efforts to advance reform and rule of law in 2015 in his New Year speech.

To comprehensively promote the rule of law in a nation with a population of 1.3 billion is equivalent to launching a sweeping and profound revolution, and its success is built on strong political guarantees.

As President Xi Jinping said at a recent seminar held for provincial and ministerial-level officials, "the socialist rule of law must be based on adherence to the Party's leadership, and the Party's governing status must depend on the socialist legal system", says a People's Daily editorial.

The Party's leadership is the most essential trait of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the soul of the socialist rule of law. The push for the rule of law in China, which has lacked such a tradition, is inseparable from strong political leadership. Without the leadership of the Communist Party of China, efforts to build a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and a nation ruled by law will yield little of value.

There is no legal system separable from politics. Behind every legal theory is a political theory and behind every legal system is a political stance. China's laws embody the Party's advocacy and the people's will. Given that the Party has led the Chinese people to make laws and draw up the nation's Constitution and pushes for their enforcement, the Party must act within the scope of the Constitution and laws. This is also the source of the Party's governing status.

What China's bid to govern the nation in accordance with the law is based on are its own Constitution and laws, rather than those of other countries. To adhere to the nation's governance in such a manner, there must be the perception that the Party's leadership cannot be shaken.

To promote the rule of law is to further consolidate the Party's leadership and improve its governing capability, and thus ensure the nation's lasting stability and safety.