On May 11, 2020, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council adopted the Opinions on Accelerating the Improvement of the System of Socialist Market Economy in a New Era (hereafter referred to as the Opinions), which have further pointed the direction of the development of the legal system of socialist market economy. Recently, Professor Sun Xianzhong, a research fellow at CASS Law Institute, a member of the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People’s Congress, and a main expert in the drafting of the Chinese Civil Code, was interviewed by the magazine China Development Observation on some issues relating to the Opinions.

First, the need to establish a clear, lawful and appropriate property order. In the interview, Professor Sun pointed out that the public property order is very important to the socialist market economy. However, in the past China has not established a good legal system in this field. The Opinions indicate that, in the future, China will “take the protection of property rights, the maintenance of contracts, a unified market, equal exchanges, fair competition, and effective regulation as the basic orientation”, thereby pointing out the direction of development of the socialist market economic system. Moreover, the Opinions also stress the protection of private property, pointing out that “The legal system related to various property rights such as real rights, obligations, and equity shall be improved, and private property and public property shall be given equal status and equal protection by legislation.” This idea had been embodied in the formulation of the Property Law and the Civil Code.

Second, transforming ideas and improving the basic principle of ruling the country by law. The codification of the civil law is a process of improving the basic principle of ruling the country by law. It eliminates the basic defects in the General Principles of the Civil Law, which was adopted under the planned economic system, as well as the conflicts and repetitions between and loopholes in the Contract Law, the Property Law and other separate civil laws through a scientific system.

Thirdly, constructing a harmonious civil law system through the compilation of the Civil Code. The codification of the civil law is the embodiment of the spirit of establishing a unified market and encouraging fair competition” put forward in the Opinions. Professor Sun suggested that a “big civil law” (namely a law applicable in the whole private law field) be established outside the Civil Code, so as to ensure the harmony and unity between the civil law system within the Civil Code and special civil laws outside the Civil Code, such as the commercial law, the intellectual property law and the social law, and enable them to jointly safeguard the people’s rights and guarantee the development of the market economic system.