Young people key group for receiving education on nation's Constitution

Young people are a key group for receiving education about the Constitution and should be cultivated with the spirit of the rule of law, said Minister of Justice Fu Zhenghua.

Fu said at a news conference on Tuesday, one day ahead of China's sixth Constitution Day, that the Ministry of Justice will continue to promote education about the Constitution among young Chinese people and further integrate the core values of socialism, history and traditional culture into legal education.

"We now have 270 million students in primary and secondary schools and higher education. This is a huge group of people, so strengthening education about the Constitution and the rule of law for them is very important," he said, adding that they will strive to make the education more pertinent and effective in a bid to lay a more solid foundation for the modernization of the national governance system.

According to Fu, China in recent years has stepped up efforts to popularize constitutional law among students. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice and the National Office for Law Popularization have issued the Rule of Law Education Program for Young People and added the course of Morality and Rule of Law into the school curriculum.

They have launched a variety of activities such as filming short videos, speech and legal knowledge contests to stimulate more students to engage in legal education. They have also trained teachers and enhanced theoretical research to give more support to the country's legal education.

The news conference was held amid a weeklong campaign, which kicked off on Sunday, aiming to boost publicity about the Constitution and raise awareness of the rule of law among members of the public.

During the campaign, the Ministry of Justice will have activities including an open day for the public and award outstanding animated short videos featuring the rule of law.

Fu said publicity work involving the Constitution is carried out nationwide, including in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, where the SAR government and local patriotic groups have done lots of work promoting awareness of the Constitution and the Basic law.

He said the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have conducted many exchanges in mediation and arbitration and built a cooperative platform in the field of justice. Many Hong Kong students and young people have also done internships in mainland law firms, arbitration institutions and courts.

"The Constitution is the fundamental law of the country and reflects the common will of all people. No matter if it is Hong Kong or Macao, they have paid as much attention to the promotion of the Constitution as anywhere else in the country," he added.