In the 1960s, the government leaders and the population of Fengqiao County in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province created what became known as the “Fengqiao Experience”. In short, they “promoted and relied on the masses, insisted on not reporting local disputes to the government and solving problems locally, making fewer arrests and maintaining public order.” “The good example set In Zhuji City should be mentioned here,” Comrade Mao Zedong said at the Fourth National People’s Congress in 1963. “Every place should follow suit,” he instructed, exhorting the whole nation to follow the Fengqiao Experience. Since then, the Fengqiao Experience has evolved continuously, taking on a distinctly modern character of “the Party and government working together, relying on the masses, preventing disputes, resolving conflicts, maintaining stability and promoting development.” Recently, to adhere to and further develop the Fengqiao Experience and implement the Party’s mass line, General Secretary Xi Jinping called for all levels of the Party and government to understand the significance of the Fengqiao Experience completely, carry forward the superior working mode of the CPC, adapt to the demands of the present, innovate working strategies for the masses, and apply the rule of law in resolving disputes and conflicts pertinent to the vital interests of the masses.

Disputes are a kind of social phenomenon; resolving disputes removes the obstacles preventing the development of human society. As society has progressed, humans have formulated laws and established models for dispute resolution. In judicial proceedings, the rights and obligations of interested parties have been explicitly defined so that disputes can be definitively resolved according to law. At present, the transformations in China’s grassroots areas, particularly the vast countryside, owing to the market economy and population mobility has altogether shocked the geography population of these regions. In these circumstances, traditional models of dispute resolution face huge challenges, and are urgent need of dedicated, in-depth scholarly attention.

In a legal environment, dispute resolutions depend on judicial proceedings. The outcome of these proceedings—the court’s decision—is fairly guarded by the coercive power of the nation, not only to ensure justice but also to guarantee the finality of a dispute’s resolution. The court’s solutions may not always be the best, however, and this is where alternative methods of dispute resolution can play a significant role. The Fengqiao Experience is a perfect example of a successful alternative dispute resolution, and it has developed into a practice, playing an active role in maintaining social order and stability.

New Fengqiao Experience reflects the demands of the present for the supervision of society. What is needed right now is a mechanism to coordinate and integrate a variety of social forces to facilitate the use of reasonable and legal solutions among the masses in dispute resolution. At the core this mechanism is an "in advance" working system, which includes institutional settings, the construction of an information network organization, and a means of prevention and mediation.

A trait shared by both the initial Fengqiao Experience and the New Fengqiao Experience in the new era is that their specific working style is and has been continuously innovated and developed, but the primary working principle “from the masses, to the masses” has never been changed. From “keeping minor issues in villages, keeping bigger issues in towns and not reporting disputes to the government,” to “organizing construction before working, making forecasts before taking precautions, taking precautions before mediating, and mediating before escalating,” all of the achievements of the Fengqiao experience embody the principle of keeping pace with the times while adhering to the mass line.

Liu Zhisong is from the Institute of Law at Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 529, Nov. 27, 2013.

The Chinese link: http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/guoneixinwen/86196.html

Translated by Zhang Mengying

Revised by Charles Horne