Xi Jinping Orders Beijing to Carry Out ‘International Struggle’ by Bolstering Laws Targeting Foreign Sanctions

Chinese leader Xi Jinping declares the games open during the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China on Feb. 4, 2022. Anthony Wallace - Pool/Getty Images

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told members of the Communist Party to reform laws related to foreign matters, particularly focusing on “urgent” areas including sanctions and foreign interference.

“We must use legal means to conduct international struggle,” Xi said in a speech that he delivered to Party cadres during the Politburo’s recent study session “on building a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics,” according to a Feb. 15 report by Qiushi, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) official bi-monthly theoretical journal.

Xi urged the Party to reform domestic laws and foreign-related laws, and to promote the application of Chinese laws in jurisdictions outside of the mainland. He also called for the regime to increase the global influence of its own legal system.

As an authoritarian state, communist China does not observe the rule of law, with the entire legal system operating under the CCP’s supervision and control.

The Chinese leader’s remarks came as a growing number of Western countries impose sanctions on CCP officials involved in human rights abuses, and slap trade restrictions on Chinese companies that pose national security risks.

Xi Jinping applauds during the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 4, 2021. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

‘International Struggle’

Chinese media has widely promoted one sentence from Mao Zedong, the first chairman of communist China. He told the people to “fight with the heaven, fight with the earth, and fight with the people.”

Now, Xi is echoing Mao’s narrative by ordering the regime “to launch an international struggle.”

“The world has entered a turbulent and reforming period. The international competition is increasingly manifested in the disputes over state systems, rules, and laws,” Xi said in his speech. “We must strengthen the legislation of foreign-related laws and regulations, to improve the efficiency of overseas law enforcement.”

He then told the Party cadres that the situation is urgent and to focus on countering long-arm jurisdiction and sanctions and interference from other countries.