China's push for the rule of law this year is unprecedented since its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, because China's development has come to such a turning point that the country is finding it hard to sustain its stability and growth with the former rule of government power.

The reform of the legislature, judiciary and administration, as the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China outlined in a rule of law reform road map at its Fourth Plenum this year, will make the rule of law more pertinent to the needs of the nation's development, the judicial departments more independent and professional, and government power more restricted and supervised.

I came to China from the Philippines in 1956 at the age of 25, responding to the call of my father and late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai to help China restart its marine biology research, so I am a witness to every step of progress and every drawback of the country.

The market reform of China after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) ushered the country into a new phase of development, which focused on high-speed growth.

But the strong power wielded by the government in not only the political realm, but also the society, market, and even the legislature and judiciary fields, has become increasingly inappropriate with the need to establish a market economy, a healthy society and a fair judicature.

A major task of the new reform program today is to uphold the dignity of laws, make lawyers more independent and professional, restrict the government's power, and prevent the government from meddling with the lawmakers, the courts and the prosecutors' work.