On April 19, 2019 (March 15, 2019 in the lunar calendar), Xiao Yang, former President of the Supreme Court, passed away. Comrade Xiao Yang, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a loyal communist fighter, an outstanding leader of my country's political and legal front, and former president of the Supreme People's Court, died in Beijing at 4:58 on April 19, 2019 due to illness at the age of 81. Xiao Yang was born in August 1938, joined the Communist Party of China in May 1966, and graduated from the Law Department of Renmin University of China. He has worked in the field of prosecution and law for a long time. He has served as deputy chief prosecutor and chief prosecutor of the People's Procuratorate of Guangdong Province, deputy chief prosecutor of the Supreme Procuratorate, and minister of the Ministry of Justice. He has served as president of the Supreme People's Court since 1998 and resigned in 2008 after 10 years of two terms. Xiao Yang is a member of the 15th and 16th Central Committees. "Ignorant people cannot be judges, incompetent people cannot be judges, and unvirtuous people cannot be judges either." Xiao Yang's "quotation" has been widely spread. He is known as "a chief justice with a civilian complex, a courageous judicial reformer, and a vibrant contemporary jurist." According to the "Legal Daily" report, Xiao Yang embarked on early exploration of the reform of the anti-corruption system, led the creation of China's first reporting center and anti-corruption bureau, and advocated the formulation and participated in the drafting of a special anti-corruption and bribery law. While presiding over the work of the Ministry of Justice, he proposed to hold legal lectures for the central leadership, recommending that the central government implement the rule of law and build a socialist country ruled by law; reform the lawyer system and prison system, create a legal aid system, and promote the promulgation of China's first Lawyers Law and Prison Law. During the work of the Supreme People's Court,"fairness and efficiency" were the theme of court work, with the goal of building a fair, efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system with China characteristics in accordance with the principles of the Constitution, the judicial system was systematically reformed, and the direction of professionalization of judges was proposed. It was recommended that the central government propose a criminal policy of "combining leniency with severity" and reform the death penalty approval system. As early as the National Two Sessions in 2003, he said: "I tell everyone without hiding that the team of judges is difficult to bring. This is the most troublesome thing for me now. Some judges are not of high quality and are not competent for increasingly professional trials. During his term of office, Xiao Yang vigorously promoted the professionalization of judges so that judges could try independently. In January 2007, Xiao Yang said during a survey in Shandong,"When I was the dean, there were two things that worried me the most, worried, and uneasy about food and sleep. One was not to handle wrong cases and kill the wrong people, and the other was to not have problems with the team. "In January 2008, Xiao Yang said when talking about how to be a good judge," Only when the law is in the hands of judges with a sense of justice can the principle of equality before the law be clearly visible, fairness and justice can be shared by everyone, and evil can Only when we stop, conflicts can be resolved, society can be harmonious, and the law can become the law in reality and the measure of factual justice. Practice has proved that without realistic legal justice and judges with deep understanding of justice and high moral integrity, the people will not benefit, but will suffer or even suffer. "During Xiao Yang's term of office, the Supreme Court withdrew the power to review the death penalty. He once said: "The bumpy experience of the death penalty approval system is generally related to the uneven journey our country has gone through and is determined by objective conditions such as political, economic, and social development in a specific historical period." Xiao Yang believes that delegating the power to review death sentences has played a positive role in maintaining social security stability and ensuring the smooth development of reform, opening up, and economic construction."However, this practice itself does have insurmountable contradictions and problems such as systems and mechanisms." In the winter of 2005, Xiao Yang hosted the "East Lake Conference" in Wuhan, Hubei Province, with only one theme: withdrawing the right to review death sentences. According to reports, the opening method of the meeting was very special. Xiao Yang presided over and asked questions. Criminal law scholars Ma Ke Chang, Wang Zuofu, Zhao Bingzhi, and Chen Xingliang and criminal procedure law scholars Chen Guangzhong, Fan Chongyi, Chen Weidong, and Long Zongzhi spoke and answered one by one, unanimously supporting the withdrawal of the power to review the death penalty. Also present at the time were all vice presidents of the Supreme Court, chief judges of various criminal courts, directors of the research office, and then secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and president of the Provincial Higher Court. They did not speak during the entire process. Chen Weidong once recalled that Xiao Yang made up his mind to plan this expert seminar. The amendment to the Organic Law of the Court in October 2006 stipulates: "Except for those sentenced by the Supreme People's Court in accordance with the law, death sentences shall be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval." In December, Xiao Yang announced at the Criminal Judges Conference of the Supreme Court that starting from January 1, 2007, the unified exercise of the power of review of death penalty cases was "basically ready." At the National Two Sessions in March 2007, Xiao Yang talked about the trial of Lai Changxing in an interview with the media. Xiao Yang said,"Lai Changxing, as the chief offender in the Xiamen Yuanhua case, committed a very serious crime. But now we want to repatriate him back to China and encounter a very important problem. Canada is a country that has abolished the death penalty. Canada has a rule-it will not extradite or repatriate countries that still retain the death penalty and may be executed. In view of this situation, after discussion, the Supreme Court Judicial Committee decided not to sentence Lai Changxing to death. The death penalty includes both immediate execution and a two-year suspension of execution. Lai Changxing will not be sentenced to death for immediate execution when he is deported to China, nor will he be sentenced to death with a two-year suspension of execution. "On July 23, 2011, Lai Changxing was deported back to China. On May 18, 2012, Lai Changxing was sentenced to life imprisonment and confiscated all personal property. Lai Changxing did not appeal. At the 2008 National Two Sessions, Xiao Yang attracted much attention because he was about to step down. When he attended the full delegation meeting of the Guangdong Youth League, he recalled his 10 years of experience working in the Supreme People's Court and expressed his deep "treasure and honor." Xiao Yang admitted that he came to the Guangdong delegation hearing this time because he took the initiative to apply to the secretariat of the conference. "When I look back on my 70 years of life, I have mixed feelings. From a rural boy, I became the chief justice of the Republic. I am very grateful to the party for its cultivation and education, and also very grateful to the people of the country, especially the people of Guangdong, for their help, support and trust in me." Xiao Yang said that his 18 years of experience working in Beijing from Guangdong in 1990, from the Supreme People's Procuratorate to the Ministry of Justice, and then to the Supreme People's Court, enabled him to witness many major historical events in the country and see the continuous progress of the construction of democracy and the legal system in China. "I am very happy to be able to participate and contribute a little bit. I especially cherish and honor the opportunity to report the work of the People's Court to the people of the country in the past 10 years." At that time, the media published a photo of Xiao Yang laughing loudly in the Guangdong delegation, which was widely disseminated. After the National Two Sessions, Xiao Yang stepped down as President of the Supreme Court. According to reports, at the leading cadre conference at that time, Xiao Yang said emotionally,"It is a joyous and glorious thing to leave my post at the end of my term, at the age of seventy, and in physical and mental health. I feel deeply happy and very pleased." After retiring in 2008, he was still studying the theory of the rule of law and promoting the spirit of the rule of law. In a speech at his alma mater, Renmin University of China, he called himself a "law-obsessed old man." Xiao Yang said,"My legal dream is still there, my legal dream is still there!" In 2012, Xiao Yang published a new book "Xiao Yang's Selected Works on the Rule of Law", which talked about the issue of judicial corruption. In Xiao Yang's view, corruption in the judicial field cannot be tolerated, but its origin is that power corruption in the judicial field and other public power corruption have something in common, that is, they all originate from the scarcity of power, the arbitrariness of the exercise of power and the flaws of the system. Xiao Yang said that to solve these problems, the Supreme Court has taken multiple measures and has never stopped its efforts in this regard. For example, fully implement the open trial system, prevent black-box operations, carry out pre-evaluation and model creation activities, conduct major judicial inspections, establish and adhere to the accountability system for illegal trials, strengthen the judge disciplinary system, promulgate regulations to regulate the relationship between judges and lawyers, and implement remote exchanges by presidents of higher courts. Last year, Xiao Yang published an article "Witness Forty Years of Rule of Law in China" in the "China Law Review" under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice. "As a legal person trained in the early days of New China, I was fortunate to be engaged in public security, procuratorial, judicial administration and judicial work under the leadership of the Party, witnessing and experiencing the great transformation of this national governance model. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, looking back at the ups and downs of the rule of law, I deeply felt that the results of reform were not easy to achieve and that there was a long way to go for future development. Therefore, at the invitation of the "China Law Review", I wrote a text to commemorate it. "Xiao Yang wrote in the article: " Although it is only a word difference from 'legal system' to 'rule of law', it is a major change in concept, marking that my country's pursuit of the rule of law has moved from obscurity to maturity and consciousness. It is the party's major development of its leadership methods, governance methods, and governance strategies. It is a abandonment of the thousand-year tradition of' rule of man ', an improvement of China's socialist democratic politics and legal system construction, and opening the way to explore China's modern rule of law. "Xiao Yang's resume Xiao Yang, male, Han nationality, born in August 1938, from Heyuan, Guangdong, joined the Communist Party of China in May 1966, started working in January 1962, graduated from the Law Department of Renmin University of China, has a university degree, and is chief justice. From 1957 to 1962, he studied at the Law Department of Renmin University of China; from January to August 1962, he was a teacher at the Political and Legal Cadre School of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; from 1962 to 1969, he was a cadre of the Public Security Bureau of Qujiang County, Guangdong Province; from 1969 to 1975, he was an officer of the Propaganda Department of the Qujiang County Party Committee, and an officer and deputy director of the County Party Committee Office; From 1975 to 1981, Secretary of the Party Committee of Longgui Commune, Qujiang County, Guangdong Province, Member of the Standing Committee of the County Party Committee and Director of the Office; from 1981 to 1983, Secretary of the Party Committee of Wujiang District, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, and Deputy Secretary of the Qingyuan Prefectural Committee; from 1983 to 1986, Deputy Procurator-General and Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the People's Procuratorate of Guangdong Province; from 1986 to 1990, Procurator-General and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the People's Procuratorate of Guangdong Province; From 1990 to 1992, Deputy Procurator-General, member of the Party Leadership Group, and member of the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate; From 1992 to 1993, Deputy Procurator-General, Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, and Member of the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate; from 1993 to 1998, Minister of Justice and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group; from 1998 to 2008, President, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, and Member of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court. Member of the 15th and 16th CPC Central Committee.