Chapter 7: Senatorial Marriage and Inheritance Law (Part 1)

At the same time, the concurrent posts of senators were to be cleared up. Currently, the various agencies of the Senate had too many departments and offices, and senators often held multiple posts, sometimes in a “shotgun marriage” fashion. Under the new system, departments and offices lacking a full-time senator in charge, and where naturalized citizen cadres were unable to take on the responsibility alone, would be merged or abolished to reduce the number of concurrent posts held by senators, with a focus on reducing concurrent posts across major departments. Certain important positions would be made full-time, with no concurrent posts.

These measures could not completely prevent senators from privately using their personal influence, but they could at least significantly increase the cost of a senator’s intervention and reduce their interest in interfering with the work of other departments.

Ma Jia further proposed in the document that in order to reduce the personal interference of senators in the personnel matters of naturalized citizens, the “Regulations on Organizational Personnel” should be compiled and promulgated as soon as possible, clarifying the specific procedures for the selection, appointment, transfer, reward, and punishment of naturalized citizen cadres.

“This matter still needs to be handled by Comrade Ming Lang from the Organization Department,” Ma Jia said at an internal meeting. “Comrade Yang Yun comes from a human resources background, and the employment system in enterprises is different from that in officialdom.”

Meanwhile, Wu De and Zhan Wuya were surrounded by senators from the industrial sector. The abolition of the General Manufacturing Directorate had left these senators, who had always worked in industry, at a loss. The new Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry effectively merged the industrial and commercial sectors, and in particular, all existing state-owned and joint-venture enterprises were listed as “national policy companies” and placed under the management of the Planning Council… These major adjustments left the industrial senators, who rarely cared about institutional issues, completely bewildered.

“It’s not that I don’t trust Wu De; we’ve worked well together these past few years. But the Planning Council is not an industrial department, after all. I’m afraid there will be a communication gap.”

“If the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry gets a senator from the commercial sector as its leader, how can we communicate if they don’t understand the business?”

“I declare, if that old lady Li becomes the minister, I’m not working in the industrial sector anymore!”

“Director Zhan, you can’t leave!”

“The factories all belong to the Planning Council. What does the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry manage then? Isn’t this like marrying one woman to two men?”

“…The work of the industrial sector will continue as usual according to the existing procedures,” Wu De explained patiently. “The process is the same as your relationship with the General Manufacturing Directorate before. The Planning Council manages capital, or shares, and does not directly interfere in the production, operation, and management of enterprises. The specific production, operation, and management are still handled by your respective counterpart industrial departments…”

According to the draft institutional reform plan, existing state-owned enterprises, with the exception of strategically significant “first-tier national policy companies,” would all adopt a “mixed ownership” system and issue restricted and unrestricted shares. In addition to being offered to senators, shares would also be issued to naturalized citizens and natives in the future. At the same time, to embody the spirit of “tilting benefits towards front-line senators,” the Planning Council would promote a policy of shareholding for senators serving in enterprises. Senators working on the front lines of enterprises could hold a certain amount of enterprise share dividend rights based on their positions. These shares could not be sold or taken with them, and the rights would be forfeited upon leaving the enterprise.

The lively discussions continued until nightfall before the meeting adjourned. Various revision suggestions were collected, and Qian Shuiting, along with the assembly’s secretarial team, worked through the night to transcribe them and send them to the printing factory. Under the supervision of Zhou Dongtian, they were sent to the labor camp printing press for typesetting and printing—the workers there were all prisoners sentenced to death or lifelong hard labor.

The next day, the meeting continued as scheduled. First, the revision suggestions proposed by the senators the previous day were distributed. In his revision suggestion for the First Amendment, Xiao Zishan proposed that the Senate should be given a certain degree of intervention power over the personal lives and families of senators, in order to prevent “incidents that harm the rights and families of senators” and at the same time maintain the “overall prestige of the Senate.”

The senators, of course, knew what Xiao Zishan’s proposal meant. Although the matter had not been formally announced, the senators had all heard something about it privately, and many were filled with righteous indignation. Some even openly clamored to abolish Old Zhang’s senatorial seat, to expel this “disgrace to the Senate” from the Senate and “demote him to a native.” Others questioned why the General Office and the security departments had not intervened in time, and why, after such an incident, the “criminal was not subjected to death by a thousand cuts” or “publicly burned at the stake as a warning.”

The response from the General Office and the Arbitration Court was that they were restricted by the regulation that “the person and freedom of a senator are not subject to interference or infringement from any quarter.” The final right of judgment over a life secretary who had offended a senator lay in the hands of the senator concerned. Without his consent, neither the General Office nor the security departments could take any action. Given Old Zhang’s ambiguous attitude, the matter had not yet been formally resolved.

Xiao Zishan’s proposal was simple. It roughly stated that “in the event of an infringement on the person or family of a senator, if the senator concerned is unable to properly exercise their senatorial powers for various reasons and cannot correctly safeguard the interests and image of all senators, the Senate shall authorize the Senate General Office and the Arbitration Court to take all necessary measures for disposal. When taking action, a representative dispatched by the Senate shall accompany them throughout the process.”

This proposal was quickly passed, riding on the coattails of the Old Zhang’s maid incident, and was included as a formal clause in the First Amendment.

“…This regulation is not only of great significance for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of senators, but conversely, it is also a constraint on certain senators—a constraint that all human beings should have,” Ji Xin said eloquently from the podium. “Our Senate is the most powerful group in this time and space, possessing immense capabilities that others do not. As they say, with great power comes great responsibility. We must more strictly abide by the bottom line of basic human morality and must not do whatever we want under the guise of the sacred and inviolable status of senators…”

“Another fraction of the senators’ freedom has been taken away,” Shan Liang said with great sorrow. He cursed Old Zhang ten thousand times in his heart. If you like kneeling on a washboard, don’t drag your daughter into it! If it weren’t for you, how could the Senate have passed such a super-stupid amendment? This way, the General Office, which had always been submissive to the senators and appeared as a purely service-oriented institution, now had the power to directly interfere in the lives of senators. In the future, when he dripped wax on Shan Huixiang, as long as a few meddlesome senators complained—like that Senator Du—the General Office could justifiably come to his door and interfere. How could he happily play with his maid then…

Ji Xin also proposed a motion to amend the clause in the original Common Program that “senators bear no legal responsibility”—this had already been stipulated in the “Regulations on Senate Discipline.” Ji Xin’s proposal went a step further, suggesting that this clause be written into the “First Amendment to the Common Program,” changing the legal privilege of senators to “senators enjoy automatic pardon and do not have to bear any criminal responsibility”; it was clarified that senators are bound by the various laws promulgated by the Senate, and any illegal act can be prosecuted, convicted, and held civilly liable.

The senators discussed this proposal and finally passed it after amending certain clauses.

The amended part first reaffirmed that the power to investigate, prosecute, try, and execute senators belongs to the Senate; cases involving senators are handled on a “case-by-case” basis; no individual or department may act arbitrarily. No naturalized citizens are allowed to participate in the investigation, trial, and execution stages of a case. Public announcements must be approved by the Senate, and so on, for protective measures.

According to the opinions of some senators, certain modifications were made to the affiliation of the Ministry of Justice. After the modification, the entire procuratorial system was merged into the Ministry of Justice, establishing a Procuratorate; the Arbitration Court was abolished, and the Supreme Court and its subordinate court system were placed directly under the Senate. The Investigation and Execution Bureau of the Arbitration Court was merged with the Cheka and renamed the Senate Audit and Anti-Corruption Investigation and Execution Bureau, abbreviated as “Cheka.” This bureau will be responsible for auditing, anti-corruption, and the implementation of the Senate’s disciplinary regulations, and will be directly subordinate to the Senate.

The clause on the nomination of cabinet members by the Secretary of State was amended to be freely nominated by the Senate.

The main topic of discussion on the second day was the “Senatorial Marriage and Inheritance Law,” which was also a matter of great concern in the Senate. It had been five years since D-Day. Although most senators were still in their prime, in this time and space with much poorer medical conditions, and with the shadow of war, production accidents, and political assassinations, the foreseeable life expectancy of senators was probably not too long.

The most important thing in a person’s life is to continue their DNA, and the senators were no exception. Now that most senators had children, some already with three or four, and there was only one senatorial seat, how to arrange the inheritance had become an immediate issue. The much-publicized incident of Old Zhang’s maid was essentially an inheritance problem.

In the view of Ma Jia and others from the Law Society, the Old Zhang’s maid incident fully reflected the conflict of concepts from different cultural backgrounds. The vast majority of the mothers of the senators’ children were from this time and space. Regardless of their social background or level of education, they inevitably carried many deep-rooted traditional concepts from this time and space, such as the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children, and the preference for sons over daughters… This was not something that could be changed simply through education in the maid school or the introduction of modern lifestyles.

Ji Xin had once cooperated with the General Office to conduct a survey on the family situation of the senators and had had many contacts with their life secretaries, so he had a considerable understanding of their thoughts and feelings. In his view, Ms. Cheng’s theory of “harem intrigue” was not baseless, especially when a senator had multiple life secretaries but no official wife. This kind of hidden competition would be very fierce, and some cases of child harm might not be accidental…

Most of the life secretaries came from poor backgrounds, and some were even saved from the brink of death. Once they became a senator’s bedfellow, it was like a “sparrow turning into a phoenix.” The material and spiritual difference was like that between heaven and earth. Regardless of how much genuine affection they had for the senator, the life secretaries would definitely do their utmost to maintain and improve their status.