China's small step

Advocates for freedom in China will find little immediate comfort in the country's new legal reforms. The criminal code passed on March 14, for example, abolishes the crime of counterrevolution. But the act it encompassed can now be prosecuted as crimes against state security, and in some cases carry even longer sentences.

The new code joins new criminal procedure laws that took effect in January. The two packages do nothing to limit the control wielded by the Communist Party, and little to protect the rights of China's people. But they are important as part of a long-term move toward a predictable legal system that may someday build the rule of law. They also offer the United States a useful way to talk to China about human rights.

In both imperial and communist China, law was simply an instrument of ruling power. When Deng Xiaoping took over in 1978, he wanted to prevent another Cultural Revolution and attract international investment. He wrote new legal codes and reopened law schools that had been closed for nearly 30 years. The move toward more rights for the Chinese people happened inadvertently. The new lawyers learned about international standards, in part through exchange programs with foreign legal scholars. They began to press China to meet those standards in criminal law.

Under the new laws, suspects must be charged within a month. They have more access to lawyers, who can now better defend their clients in court.

There are other changes, but the improvement is limited. Suspects can see lawyers only after questioning. They are still not completely presumed innocent. Those accused of minor crimes can be sent to laborcamps for four years without a trial.

Since judges take orders from the party, the laws will take effect only when the party chooses. They come at a time when all dissent has been silenced and party dominance is being reaffirmed.

Yet the legal reforms are still a sign that China is increasingly sensitive to international standards and the need to move toward rule of law. They also offer a new avenue for the frustrating human rights dialogue between the United States and China. Clinton administration officials, businessmen and human rights groups should add the rule of law to their traditional emphasis on high-profile dissidents. Chinese officials who want legal predictability are more likely to be receptive. Such an approach would also unite the American human rights and business communities, who have been at war over how strongly to push China to free dissidents.

-- The New York Times