Wang Jiafu (; February 1931 – 13 July 2019) was a Chinese

legal scholar Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the a ...

. He served as Director of the Institute of Law,

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese state research institute and think tank. It is a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The CASS is the highest academic institution and c ...

(CASS), and was elected an academician of the CASS. A leading authority on civil law in China, he was a member of the Legal Committee of the

8th National People's Congress The 8th National People's Congress (NPC) was in session from 1993 to 1998. It succeeded the 7th National People's Congress. It held five sessions in this period. Seat distribution The first session Elected state leaders In the 1st Session in ...

and a member of the Standing Committee of the

9th National People's Congress The 9th National People's Congress (NPC) was in session from 1998 to 2003 across five plenary sessions. It followed the final session of the 8th National People's Congress. There were 2,979 deputies to this Congress. Background This was the f ...

. He played a major role in designing China's new legal system after the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, and was awarded the "Pioneer of Reform" medal in 2018.

Early life and education

Wang was born in February 1931 in a mountainous village in

Nanchong Nanchong ( zh, c=南充 , p=Nánchōng , w=Nan-ch'ung; Sichuanese: lan2cong1) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of Sichuan province, China, with an area of . At the 2020 census it was home to 5,607,565 people, of whom 1,936,534 liv ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

, Republic of China. He moved to

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

at age ten, where he completed his primary and secondary education. In August 1953, Wang graduated from

China University of Political Science and Law The China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL; ; pinyin: Zhōng Guó Zhèng Fǎ Dà Xué), also translated as Zhengfa University, is a national public university in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education and co- ...

in Beijing. He pursued graduate studies in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and became a legal researcher at the Institute of Law,

(then part of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

) after returning to China in 1959.

Career

When the

reform and opening Reform and opening-up ( zh, s=改革开放, p=Gǎigé kāifàng), also known as the Chinese economic reform or Chinese economic miracle, refers to a variety of economic reforms termed socialism with Chinese characteristics and socialist market ...

era began after the end of the

, Wang published articles on the ''

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' ( zh, s=人民日报, p=Rénmín Rìbào) is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP in multiple lan ...

'' and the journal ''Legal Research'' in 1978 and 1979, advocating the establishment of a

civil code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

. In 1987, he was appointed a member of the working group for revising China's

contract law A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more Party (law), parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, Service (economics), services, money, or pr ...

. In March 1998, he was appointed a member of the working group for drafting China's civil code. His efforts helped facilitate the adoption of the by the

12th National People's Congress The 12th National People's Congress (NPC) was elected in national congressional conferences from October 2012 to February 2013 and was in session from 2013 to 2018. It succeeded the 11th National People's Congress. It held five plenary sessions ...

on 15 March 2017. Wang played a major role in designing China's new legal system. In 1995 and 1996, he was twice invited to

Zhongnanhai Zhongnanhai () is a compound that houses the offices of and serves as a residence for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council of the People's Republic of China, State Council. It was a former imperial gard ...

to give legal lectures to the

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the executive committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Currently, the bureau i ...

, including China's top leaders, Party general secretary

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Mil ...

and Premier

Li Peng Li Peng (; 20 October 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Chinese politician who served as the 4th premier of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, from ...

. He emphasized the crucial need for legislation to prevent the politically powerful from profiting from the free market, especially during China's transition from a

planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, ...

to a

market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...

. The merit of his proposal was officially acknowledged by Jiang Zemin in 1996. Wang served as Director of the Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and was elected an academician of the CASS. He was a member of the Legal Committee of the

and a member of the Standing Committee of the

. In 2018, the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening, the Chinese government awarded Wang the "Pioneer of Reform" medal. Wang died on 13 July 2019 at the

Peking Union Medical College Hospital Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), also known as Beijing Xiehe Hospital (), is a large teaching hospital in Beijing, China. It was founded in 1921 by the Rockefeller Foundation and is affiliated to both Peking Union Medical College ( ...

in Beijing, at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Jiafu 1931 births 2019 deaths Chinese legal scholars Writers from Nanchong China University of Political Science and Law alumni Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Delegates to the 8th National People's Congress Members of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People's Congress Chinese expatriates in the Soviet Union