President Xi Jinping on Friday called for strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over advancing law-based governance in all areas.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and head of the Commission for Law-based Governance of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks while presiding over the first meeting of the commission.

Efforts should be made to unswervingly promote socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and enable the rule of law to better play its role of guarantee for a solid foundation, stabilized expectations and long-term interests, Xi said.

Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu and Wang Huning, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy heads of the commission, attended the meeting.

Documents including the commission's working rules and its work priorities in 2018 were adopted at the meeting.

The rule of law and the Party's leadership over law-based governance in all areas need to be further strengthened in order to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi said.

The CPC Central Committee has since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 made a series of major decisions on law-based governance in all areas, which are the fundamental rules for law-based governance and must be adhered to and steadily developed on a long-term basis, he said.

With this year's work priorities made clear, Xi called on relevant authorities to formulate a plan on building the rule of law in China, fully implement and enforce the Constitution, ensure legislation is sound, strengthen the building of a government based on the rule of law, deepen judicial system reform, advance efforts to build a society based on the rule of law, and train judicial personnel.

Xi said the commission should focus its energy on top-level design, take the initiative to design the overall thinking and decide on the major tasks for building the system of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and do the planning and scientific decision-making on key issues concerning the law-based governance in all areas.