From its birth in the late 1920s to the end of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist judicial system had seen a coexistence of fear of losing power, legal instrumentalism, and legalism, albeit certain elements outweighed the others in some periods. Built on fear, the Communist judicial system was meant initially to be a violent and powerful instrument safeguarding CCP power and countering political enemies in the midst of life-and-death wars with the GMD, its foremost adversary. Having expelled the GMD to Taiwan and created the PRC, the CCP continued to fear for its security in the face of volatile and hostile domestic and international adversaries. That concern prompted the Party to launch intermittent campaigns (1950-1952, 1955-1956, 1957-1960, 1962, 1966) in which the judicial system (and military commissions in early years) acted as a coercive and faithful instrument of the Party. However, many Party leaders and judges at both high and local levels still adhered to basic legal principles and respected legal professionalism such as equality before the law, judicial process, and litigants’ rights to defense or appeal. More important, the concomitant of the three crucial elements that has long accompanied the Chinese judicial system did not end in the post-1978 reforms. Rather, we can predict with assurance that all three elements will persist so long as the CCP survives.