The Three Supremes () is a doctrine first articulated by

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader ...

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...

in December 2007, which requires the judiciary to subordinate the written law to the interests of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

(CCP) and the maintenance of "social stability." As

put it during the National Conference on Political-Legal Work, "In their work, the grand judges and grand procurators shall always regard as supreme the party's cause, the people's interest and the constitution and laws."Jerome A. Cohen
Body Blow For The Judiciary
South China Morning Post, October 18, 2008

The “Three Supremes” are as follows: 1. “Supremacy of the business of the CCP” (党的事业至上) 2. “Supremacy of the interests of the people” (人民利益至上) 3. “Supremacy of the Constitution and the laws” (宪法法律至上)'Media Dictionary:Three Supremes 三个至上'
University of Hong Kong Chinese Media Project. In March 2008 Party functionary

Wang Shengjun Wang Shengjun (; born October 15, 1946 in Suzhou, Anhui) is a retired Chinese politician who was the President of the Supreme People's Court of China from March 2008 to March 2013. Biography He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1972. ...

was confirmed as the president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC). Unlike predecessors who had placed emphasis on legal training, the tenure of Wang Shengjun (who has no formal legal training himself) has been defined by mandating the study of the Three Supremes theory, and by his emphasis on the need to uphold the leadership of the CCP. The launch of the Three Supremes, and corresponding appointment of Wang Shengjun to the SPC, has been viewed by some legal scholars as an example of

backsliding Backsliding, also known as falling away or described as "committing apostasy", is a term used within Evangelical Christianity to describe a process by which an individual who has converted to Christianity reverts to pre- conversion habits and/o ...

in the development of an independent, autonomous, and competent legal community. Many legal scholars in China believe that the Three Supremes serves to "enshrine the notion that the law must serve the basic strategic interests of the CCP by taking into primary consideration the CCP’s own notion of pressing national priorities, interests and realities."

References

Chinese law {{China-law-stub