BEIJING
The annual session of China’s Communist Party got underway Monday, focusing on the rule of law for the first time in the party’s history, state news agency Xinhua reported.
The fourth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee, which includes all the committee’s 205 members, will consider "major issues concerning comprehensively advancing [the] rule of law," Xinhua cited sources close to the meeting.
In 1997 the party decided to make "building a socialist country under the rule of law" an important goal for modernization.
The Central Committee is the supreme authority in communist China and the plenary meetings are heralded by domestic media as the highlight of the political calendar although most analysts see power as residing with party leader and President Xi Jinping.
The session, which runs to Thursday, will set the government’s agenda for the coming year. It comes against the background of a crackdown on corruption among officials.
In its 2014 World Report, Human Rights Watch said the government "places arbitrary curbs on expression, association, assembly, and religion; prohibits independent labor unions and human rights organizations; and maintains party control over all judicial institutions."
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