Review of the Law Popularizing Education on Administrative Compulsion in Response to Major Epidemic Situations in China

Abstract

The popularization of education on the administrative compulsion law in response to major epidemic situations in China refers to the educational activities carried out by an educational subject aimed at an educational object promoting understanding and mastery of knowledge of administrative compulsion. The goal is to improve the government’s legal ability to prevent and control behavior, enhance people’s awareness of the rule of law, and provide a strong legal basis for the rule of law in the context of major epidemics. Other aims are to cultivate citizens’ legal beliefs, restrain citizens’ conduct, and maintain a stable social order. However, problems arise in the subject, content, and mode of the educational activities. Therefore, we need to discuss compulsory education in the context of major epidemic situations, including the need for a favorable educational environment, the strengthening of information distribution, and the guidance of public opinion on administrative enforcement. We should also improve education subjects to enhance the legal quality of administrative organs, perfect the education content, encourage people to support administrative compulsion in epidemic situations, and deliver education in campus online classes.

1. Introduction

Chinese President Jinping Xi once said that “under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, we should always put people’s life, safety, and health first, making efforts to link legislation, law enforcement, judiciary, and the rule of law, comprehensively improving the ability to prevent, control, and govern according to law, and providing a strong legal guarantee of epidemic prevention and control.” He further pointed out that “we should strengthen the publicity of the rule of law and legal services for epidemic prevention and control, organize grass-roots publicity of epidemic prevention and control, guide the people to enhance their awareness of the rule of law, and support and cooperate with epidemic prevention and control according to the law.” In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments at all levels adopted administrative coercive measures under the state of emergency in accordance with the law. Unlike China, most Western countries have adopted a laissez-faire attitude and support coexistence with the virus. For example, Sweden differed from most other European countries in that it mostly remained open.

The Regulations on Public Health Emergencies clearly stipulate that “Special education on emergency knowledge of emergencies shall be carried out for the public to enhance the prevention awareness and response ability of society as a whole to emergencies”. To prevent and control the epidemic situation more effectively, it was necessary to strengthen the law popularizing education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations. Therefore, we must deeply understand the educational connotation of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemics, focus on education regarding administrative compulsion in response to major epidemics, and strive to explore the educational path of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemics.

2. Research Background

2.1. Administrative Compulsion in Response to Major Epidemic Situations

Administrative compulsion in response to a major epidemic is essentially an emergency administrative compulsion, mainly referring to compulsion directly imposed on the personal freedom or property of the administrative counterpart to achieve the administrative purpose after the administrative subject declares a state of emergency [1]. The characteristics of this administrative act have two aspects. First, the prerequisite for the implementation of administrative compulsion must be that the emergency mechanism begins the state of emergency stipulated by law. It is a state in which the national interests, public interests, or social order are in serious danger. The second is the coercive measures taken by the administrative subject against the administrative counterpart without legal obligations to prevent the expansion of the state of emergency. The main functions of administrative emergency coercive measures are managing emergencies promptly, governing social chaos, and guiding public behavior in a state of emergency.

Due to the danger, threat, and urgency of a state of emergency, it is difficult to manage a state of emergency and restore social order using only general means or measures to manage society effectively. It is necessary to endow the government with special and greater administrative power, namely, emergency administrative power, so that the government can effectively and promptly organize and use various resources; take strong measures to respond effectively to the state of emergency; eliminate dangers; manage the crisis; maintain or restore normal constitutional and legal order; ensure people’s life, health, and the safety of their property; and minimize the possible losses caused by the state of emergency [2]. The particularity of emergencies often means that emergency power deviates from clear and detailed legal norms, operating flexibly by changing the conventional system, suspending the implementation of laws, and suspending the protection of some rights. This is an almost intolerable situation in the modern legal system, with its basis in formal rational norms and its basic goal of safeguarding order and human rights [3].

In response to major epidemic situations, the subject of administrative compulsion in a narrow sense refers to the emergency command organization authorized by laws and regulations. According to The Regulations on Public Health Emergencies, China has established two levels of emergency command organizations: one is the national emergency response headquarters established by the State Council, and the other is the local emergency response headquarters established by the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. In a broad sense, the subject of administrative compulsion also includes the administrative subject with the right to implement administrative compulsion, including administrative health departments, disease prevention and control departments, public security departments, and market supervision and management departments. These administrative organs are not only the most directly responsible for law enforcement and maintaining order in general but also the most directly responsible for restoring order in special cases. Emergencies provide them with a unique opportunity to exercise a special degree of discretion [4]. The object of administrative compulsion mainly refers to the administrative counterpart who is subject to administrative coercive measures, mainly including patients who need isolation treatment and medical observation measures, patients who may be infectious, and the close contacts of patients with infectious diseases.

In response to the first wave of the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, most political organizations around the world adopted a strong policy to implement rules and regulations, including closing unnecessary businesses and imposing curfews [5]. As far as China is concerned, all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, including Hubei, launched a first-class response to a major public health emergency involving almost the whole country’s population. The implementation of administrative compulsion is the key for the administrative subject to take control of major epidemic situations. In major epidemic situations, normal restrictive measures are not enough to maintain public safety and protect the life and health of the people. Therefore, special response measures are needed. The laws and regulations concerning public health emergencies in China adopted during the COVID-19 outbreak involved coercive administrative measures, including compulsory isolation and isolation treatment, compulsory inspection and observation, compulsory quarantine and inspection, mandatory storage, compulsory acquisition and requisition, limiting or stopping concentrated activities, and lockdowns of outbreak areas.

During the epidemic, it has become clear that the prevention, control, and restrictive measures achieved results. These positive changes were inseparable from the strict prevention and control measures taken throughout the country. However, in specific operations in some grass-roots areas, there were disturbing new phenomena involving extreme oversimplification, rudeness, and overcorrection. For example, residents’ lives were difficult because they are required to isolate in their homes; those who go out and run without masks are forcibly isolated. Some homeowners, tenants, and even medical staff are not allowed to return to their own homes. Under the banner of epidemic prevention, you cannot do whatever you want. In general, the behavior of some epidemic prevention personnel violates public security management law. However, some individuals may engage in criminal behavior, such as the abuse of power, deliberately destroying property, and intentional injury. Therefore, strengthening compulsory measures and popularizing education on administrative compulsion during the epidemic can play a strong protective role in carrying out reasonable administration within the law and protecting the basic rights and interests of citizens.

2.2. Combing the Measures of Law Popularizing Education under Administrative Compulsion

In combination with the notion of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations and the provisions of laws and regulations, the government is obliged to carry out emergency education for the public. The law popularizing education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations refers to the educational activities carried out by the educational subject for the educational object, with the main purpose of understanding and mastering the legal knowledge of administrative compulsion, improving the government‘s ability to prevent and control according to the law, enhancing the people’s awareness of the rule of law, and providing a strong guarantee of the rule of law in epidemic prevention and control.

The subject and object of administrative compulsory law popularization education in response to major epidemic situations can be analyzed from two aspects: education management and education implementation. The first level involves the subject and object of education management. The subject refers to the relevant administrative departments that manage the activities of compulsory administrative education. It is mainly responsible for the top-level design of compulsory administrative education, mainly covering educational policy, educational direction, educational decision making, and overall education planning. It should be noted that these administrative departments do not directly participate in the specific process of administrative compulsory law popularization education activities. The subjects of administrative compulsory legal education in response to major epidemic situations refer to emergency command institutions, competent health administrative departments, and other relevant departments. The object refers to the teaching and publicity personnel who directly participate in the administrative compulsory law popularization education activities, as well as the general audience who receive the administrative compulsory law popularization education. The second level involves the subject and object of education implementation. The subject is mainly the education publicity department of administrative compulsion, that is, the executor of the education policy and the publicity plan for the teaching. In the process of teaching, educators of administrative compulsory law popularization must pay attention to imparting administrative compulsory legal knowledge to the audience. The administrative compulsion educators do not simply convey the dogma of administrative compulsion laws and regulations. They also organize and guide the whole process of publicity and education activities. The broad masses of the people receiving the education are the object, i.e., those who need to be educated. For example, in-depth publicity and education activities on the theme of “Public Epidemic Prevention and Control of the Rule of Law” are carried out among teachers and students on campus. They make full use of online platforms and other publicity and education, carefully organize the propaganda and interpretation of laws and regulations related to epidemic prevention and control, comprehensively construct a healthy learning and propaganda Internet legal literacy position, and provide a more efficient and effective learning channel for teachers and students.

The specific measures of administrative compulsory law popularization education in response to major epidemic situations mainly include the following two requirements. First, there is the need to publicize the legitimacy of administrative compulsion and the illegality of not accepting government regulations. For an accurate and effective publicity system for the rule of law, there is a need for a notification system and an efficient link between public announcements of the rule of law and judicial law enforcement. This link must extend to public legal services, conflict and dispute resolution, and government departments so that the foresight and initiative of the work are continuously enhanced [6]. The second requirement is to provide legal services for administrative compulsion, to arrange daily public consultations, and the prompt resolution of any infringements to rights and interests caused by improper administrative behavior, whereby there is classified guidance, policy guidance, legal advice, and compliance intervention [7]. The public service function of legal services organically combines the gravity and convenience of justice, building an emotional communication bridge between quasi-justice, justice, and the public, promoting the public’s perception and recognition of judicial justice, their compliance with the law, and their belief in the rule of law [8]. However, not all citizens have a clear concept of the legal system. For example, a man living in a community on Happy Avenue, Hongshan District, Wuhan, refused to cooperate with the community lockdown. He maintained that the relevant provisions on lockdowns of provincial and municipal communities were illegally enforced on his community and were abused by the police on duty. When the police and community cadres of the Qingshan Branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau tried to persuade a man to wear a mask near the Badajia Garden community, the man refused to cooperate, provoking and threatening the police, saying he would rather wear handcuffs than wear a mask. The two men in these cases were sentenced to administrative detention and other penalties.

Of course, it must be recognized that during the epidemic prevention and control period, individuals must abide by the law and must cooperate in the prevention and control of the epidemic. However, the law enforcement behavior of relevant departments must operate within the rules. Requiring responsible departments to enforce the law is consistent with requiring citizens to abide by the law to prevent and control the epidemic. Both sets of actions are needed for the rational operation of social life under the framework of the rule of law. If epidemic prevention does not follow the rule of law to the letter, it is inevitable that a group of people with some power will emerge. They will not be able to behave responsibly. Their use of power will become excessive and illegal. Therefore, to ensure the personal safety of every citizen, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice jointly formulated the “Opinions on punishing the illegal epidemic prevention and control of infectious diseases caused by New Coronavirus infection in accordance with the law” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinion”). It is clear that the law is applicable to all kinds of illegal and criminal acts occurring during the current COVID-19 epidemic. This includes behavior management for those who refuse to wear masks and will not be persuaded otherwise. The Opinion pointed out that other people who refuse to implement the prevention and control measures proposed by the health and epidemic prevention institutions in accordance with the law on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, and whose behavior does not constitute a crime, will be punished by the relevant public security organization. The punishment will be in accordance with the provisions of the laws on public security administration and punishment for breaches of public order, troublemaking, refusing to obey orders under emergency conditions, and hindering the performance of duties by the relevant departments.

2.3. Significance of Law Popularization Education on Administrative Compulsion in Response to Major Epidemic Situations

The application of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations plays an important and positive role in society. Carrying out relevant law popularization education can improve the legal level of epidemic prevention and control, promote the operation of government under the rule of law, and improve the level of administration according to law. In addition, it can educate and guide people to enhance their awareness of the rule of law, and to support, cooperate, and participate in the legal means of epidemic prevention and control. It is embodied in the following five aspects: First, the spreading of the correct concept of rule of law. Historically and theoretically, the opposition of the rule of law to any form of arbitrary rule often turns into general opposition to any form of discretionary action. It occupies a very important position in modern constitutional theory and practice, making it difficult to imagine that power is exercised outside of a judicial framework. Administrative compulsion is one of the most authoritative and efficient administrative acts implemented by the administrative subject in response to major epidemic situations. Education on administrative compulsion can encourage the public to acquire relevant legal knowledge and enhance their concept of the rule of law. This helps the administrative subject to use a variety of policy tools to mobilize the strength of society as a whole and to allocate various available resources to manage the crisis. The law popularization education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations is different from general law education. Its educational tone can serve the overall situation of national epidemic prevention and control, maintain a rational focus on positive energy, and peacefully convey the ideas of prevention and control according to law and governance to ensure the correct orientation of education.

Second, the cultivation of citizens’ legal beliefs. The outbreak of a major epidemic often has fatal consequences. It is directly related to the life, health, and safety of the people. The urgency of the risk of major epidemics means that the necessary measures must be taken quickly and promptly. Adhering to the scientific methodology of overall consideration, the law popularization education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations, on the one hand, considers the long-term top-level design. On the other hand, it focuses on practice, solving the current practical problems and helping to develop the national habit and belief in the rule of law. In the long run, education on administrative compulsion gives full play to the basic regulation, institutional guarantees, and fundamental guidance functions of the rule of law. It ensures the correct orientation of prevention and control education according to the law and guides the public to enhance their awareness of the overall situation and the rule of law [9]. At present, education on administrative compulsion makes the public realize that the exercise of government power is not arbitrary, not because of the people who administer the power, but because it is based on the law. This helps people to understand the rationality of various epidemic prevention measures [10]. Strengthening education on administrative compulsion will help the government to administer according to law and to standardize the behavior of administrative subjects, making citizens recognize the concept of the rule of law of administrative compulsion and cultivating their informed legal belief.

Third, the enhancement of citizens’ collective consciousness. Administrative compulsory education provides people with an opportunity to learn to use the principle of collectivism to understand the relationship between personal security and collective security and to appreciate the dialectical and unified relationship between personal security and collective security. Without collective security, there will be no personal security. With collective security, personal security can become stronger. The implications of the relationship between the individual and the collective in socialist collectivism are more evident during major epidemic situations than at any other time [11].

Fourth, the code of conduct restricts citizens. The goal of administrative compulsory education in a major epidemic response is to eliminate the adverse impact of an epidemic-induced crisis on the public. However, as a result of some negative situations in administrative compulsion, the administrative counterpart can easily doubt the authority of the administrative subject as the representative of public interests and even instinctively contradict all the acts of the administrative subject. This has greatly hindered the realization of administrative objectives and may even have stimulated new social contradictions, which are not conducive to the control of major epidemic situations. Strengthening education on administrative compulsion in major epidemic situations will help people to understand, support, and cooperate with epidemic prevention and control measures.

Fifth, the maintenance of a stable social order. Public health emergencies, including major epidemics, are generally unexpected. After a sudden outbreak, they often spread rapidly on a large scale, easily leading to chaos in the whole social order. As the main control means of the administrative subject, the purpose of administrative compulsion is to promptly and effectively control the spread of a virus and assist society to restore a normal order. Strengthening education on administrative compulsion will help to achieve this goal.

3. Problems Existing in Administrative Compulsory Law Popularization Education in Response to Major Epidemic Situations

3.1. The Extent of Law Popularization Education Is Insufficient

At the level of education management, administrative compulsory law popularization education management in response to major epidemic situations has an unclear division of labor and unclear responsibilities. The subjects of law popularization education managing administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations include emergency command institutions, competent health administrative departments, and other relevant departments. From the perspective of laws, regulations, and practice, administrative compulsory law popularization education management subjects are diversified and inconsistent in response to major epidemic situations. This results in an unclear division of labor and even mutual transfer of responsibilities between the subjects in the actual work, not only affecting the efficiency of education work but also leading to a lack of clarity regarding the responsibility sharing of the education management subjects after the problems emerge [12]. In terms of the power allocation of the main body of law popularization education management of administrative compulsion, the vertical power distribution is not clear, the coordination between horizontal powers is weak, and the provisions on functions and powers and cooperation between the main bodies are not clear. The “fragmentation” of each subject is serious, and the uncoordinated objectives can lead to the failure of the effective integration of emergency information and knowledge, lack of necessary relevance, and the educational effect being “fragmented” [13].

At the level of education implementation, the subject of administrative compulsory education in response to major epidemic situations faces the problem of the insufficient allocation of teachers [14]. In the legal popularization education system on administrative compulsion, school education is very important. The key for the educated objects to abide by the law and discipline and to improve their legal cultivation lies in education in schools. However, the law popularization education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemics is often ignored, and the vast majority of students do not have a basic knowledge of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemics. The main reason for this problem is the insufficient allocation of teachers. This restricts the high-quality promotion of administrative compulsory education activities in major epidemic situations. In contemporary higher education, the characteristics of discipline and specialization are distinct, and few teachers are engaged in legal education. At present, most of the teachers engaged in legal education in China have majored in ideological and political education. They lack systematic legal professional education. Therefore, systematic and continuous legal professional knowledge training for the teachers of legal education is urgently required. This training should include not only the special short-term training organized by the education department but also formal legal professional training [15]. To this end, we also paid a huge price. Not long ago, the lack of education and publicity in colleges and universities triggered a large-scale epidemic in Jilin Province. This is deeply regrettable. However, the strengthening of epidemic prevention and control education and law popularization education will eventually control this concentrated epidemic. It is encouraging that the current publicity in places in Jilin, Shanghai, and Wuhan have achieved good results. In particular, the epidemic situation in Wuhan on 21 February 2022 was effectively prevented and controlled by the Wuhan government through multi-sectoral joint operations involving precise prevention and control, which contained the development of the epidemic in only 14 days.

3.2. Lack of Legal Education Content

First, the laws and regulations that are indispensable for compulsory administrative education in response to major epidemic situations lag. In India, it was demonstrated that the scale of emergencies and health preparedness needs a critical mass of public health legislation that has a correct and equitable approach [16]. A comprehensive and accurate interpretation of relevant laws and regulations is the basis of effective education. A large part of the educational content involves publicizing the laws and regulations [17]. At present, the legal system of administrative compulsion in major epidemic situations is imperfect. The provisions are not unified and the logic behind some regulations is in doubt. From the perspective of the overall legal system, the legal system of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations is a decentralized legislative model. Specifically, the Administrative Compulsion Law of the People’s Republic of China only stipulates administrative compulsion in the general state. However, administrative compulsion in the emergency state needs to refer to the relevant provisions of other laws and regulations, which are spread throughout many laws, administrative regulations, and departmental rules, such as the Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Law of The People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Emergency Regulations for Public Health Emergencies, and the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law of the People’s Republic of China. The advantage of this decentralized legislation is that it is highly professional. It stipulates different mandatory measures for different fields, which is conducive to giving full play to the professional advantages. However, it cannot effectively integrate resources between departments at different levels and with different functional structures; it cannot give full play to the overall resource advantages. Moreover, most of these professional laws and regulations belong to departmental legislation; they lack mutual unity and coordination. This problem makes the educational subject unable to accurately grasp the authoritative legal provisions of administrative compulsory education. In the setting of relevant curriculum contents, it is difficult to form a complete and consistent logical system. This situation is not conducive to the development of educational activities. Furthermore, although the formulation of specific emergency plans claims to be based on normative documents, such as the Constitution, laws, and administrative regulations, the normative contents of most emergency plans lack a clear legal basis in essence. In countries under the rule of law, various “exception” systems and measures still need to be recognized by the legitimacy of sovereign institutions and the legal system; however, this stage has not yet been reached in China. In China’s conventional and unconventional legal system, there is no legal concept, legal principle, and corresponding normative system of “national emergency power,” whether in the Constitution, the National Security Law, the Martial Law, the Emergency Response Law, or other laws related to emergencies [18]. China’s Constitution strictly limits the “state of emergency” to the narrow social events of war and civil strife, meaning that the public interest crisis caused by new major emergencies such as natural disasters and major public health events cannot be recognized by the “state of emergency” norms in the Constitution, thereby indirectly limiting the legitimate exercise of “state of emergency power”.

Second, the concept of rule of law education for the educational object lags. The administrative compulsion knowledge monopoly gives the subjects the privilege of drafting solutions. Different personal needs mean that their understanding of various social problems is highly limited. They believe that it is not necessary to involve the general public, and the experience-based needs of the general public can be underestimated or completely ignored. As a result, solutions often cause great difficulties and harm to individual actors. In response to major epidemic situations, the content of law popularization education on administrative compulsion is used to guide the educational object to pay attention to the protection of public interests and to ignore the protection of personal interests. In practice, it focuses on teaching objects to cooperate with the implementation of administrative compulsion, and it is easy to ignore the beneficial remedy for the infringed administrative counterpart. In terms of compensation and relief, the current laws and regulations do not stipulate specific and operable compensation standards. For example, the Regulations on Emergency Response to Public Health Emergencies only stipulate that relevant departments are authorized to requisition materials and block epidemic areas after emergencies. There is no provision for compensation after the epidemic. Regarding education on administrative compulsion, the lack of content on suitable relief and economic compensation indicates the lag in education on the concept of the rule of law. This can easily lead the educated object to query the rationality of administrative compulsion. The main means of protecting the right to life, education, publicity, and prevention have changed the traditional responsibility proposition and given reasonable compensation to the expectation of life security. General Secretary Xi also pointed out that the rule of law should consolidate the foundation, stabilize expectations, and promote long-term development [19].

3.3. The Implementation of Law Popularization Education Is Not Perfect

First, traditional forms of education cannot be used during major epidemics. The traditional forms of education mainly focus on legal publicity, including the distribution of educational material manuals, the production of outdoor display boards and blackboard newspapers, the posting of publicity slogans, the holding of face-to-face on-site lectures, special reports, meetings and discussions, the interpretation of knowledge, and the provision of legal advice and legal aid. The rich and diverse traditional forms of education can provide all-around and multi-level publicity and education content in normal situations. However, during a major epidemic, most people need to isolate themselves at home, and thus, it is difficult to congregate. The traditional forms of education that can only be carried out in public places cannot be used. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the use of new media; improve the flexibility of educational forms with the help of modern media; and use multi-platform interconnected software for computers, tablets, and mobile phones, thereby providing diversified channels for the development of educational activities and improving the effectiveness of rule of law education.

Second, the implementation method of education is relatively simple. The object of administrative compulsory education in response to major epidemic situations is people in general, including teenagers. Education for teenagers is related to the success of education in general. At present, education is mostly book-based. The advantage of books as a medium is that their authority can be guaranteed and their content can be relatively comprehensive. However, book-based learning pays too much attention to cognitive education and neglects the practical aspects of education. The simple interpretation of legal knowledge focuses on indoctrination rather than interaction, leading to a boring and monotonous education process that is not conducive to teenagers’ active education. One of the advantages of experiential education is that it can offer the educational object an immersive situation and can result in a more intuitive and vivid understanding of the content of the knowledge taught. This not only improves the internalization of the knowledge but greatly reduces the difficulty of memorizing the necessary information. At the core of successful experiential education is the transformation of obscure legal theoretical knowledge into vivid and intuitive content. For example, 3D animation presentations are an excellent way of conveying important information. Other virtual simulation technology products, such as VR glasses, fully mobilize the senses, deepen the impression, and promote thinking. In response to major epidemic situations, we should use innovative educational methods and carry out online educational activities, including online cloud classrooms in primary and secondary schools.

3.4. The Effectiveness Evaluation System of Law Popularization Education Is Not Perfect

Evaluation is a practical need in ideological and political education. It is also an inevitable requirement for the theoretical construction of ideological and political education. There are some common problems in the construction of philosophy and the social sciences. These problems include “The absence of authoritative evaluation standards, the absence of diversified evaluation subjects, the lack of appropriate evaluation directions, and the lack of scientific evaluation indicators” [20]. At present, there is neither a quantitative evaluation index nor a scientific and sound evaluation system for the effective evaluation of compulsory administrative education in response to major epidemic situations. The resulting situation is that the only job of teachers is teaching and the only requirement of students is attendance. Where the teaching effect and students’ mastery and application of the content learned in class is concerned, there is often no specific way to assess this, and there is a lack of oriented and dynamic assessment and evaluation mechanisms to provide effective feedback on the teaching situation [21]. The present educational activity system without an effective feedback mechanism has obvious disadvantages. It is not conducive to an objective understanding of the defects of the existing educational contents and means. Therefore, targeted improvement measures cannot be taken to enhance people’s understanding of the necessity and rationality of administrative compulsion in major epidemic situations.

4. Optimizing the Path of Law Popularization Education under Administrative Compulsion in Response to Major Epidemic Situations

4.1. Improving the Legal Cultivation of Administrative Organs in Administration According to Law

The construction of educational subjects must be strengthened and there must be improvements in the legal aspects of administrative organs administering according to law. President Jingpin Xi stressed that Party committees (Party groups) at all levels, leading groups, leading cadres at all levels, grass-roots Party organizations, and the majority of Party members should implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and resolutely win the war on the spread of the epidemic [22]. In response to major epidemic situations, it is particularly important for the Party to clarify the division of labor and responsibilities for the educational subjects. According to the legal provisions and the above analysis, the educational subjects of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations broadly include emergency command institutions, competent administrative health departments, public security organs, market supervision, management organs, and judicial organs.

The national and provincial emergency command institutions are generally responsible for publicizing the epidemic prevention and control deployment and the emergency response laws and regulations related to administrative compulsion. The competent health departments are specifically responsible for publicizing the legal knowledge related to administrative compulsion. Public security organs and market supervision and administration organs are obliged to strengthen law enforcement education related to administrative compulsion. Judicial organs should interpret the law based on cases and should reinforce education on the rule of law related to administrative compulsion.

An important step in strengthening the construction of educational subjects is to establish a linkage mechanism, that is, to bring about the harmonious progress of various elements within the system. An important aspect of systematization is the coexistence and common prosperity of various elements within the system, further enhancing communication and cooperation between various elements within the system, forming a linkage mechanism between the elements, which is an important measure in improving the quality of educational subjects [23]. Therefore, we should strengthen the links between emergency command institutions, administrative health departments, public security organs, market supervision, management organs, judicial organs, and other educational subjects to better serve education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations. Each subject should give full play to their respective advantages, systematically integrating resources and forming a joint force to deliver education on administrative compulsion.

The most basic thing is to enhance emergency legal thinking and the legal ability of various administrative subjects that are closely related to epidemic prevention and control and to improve emergency legal thinking and the ability of civil servants by strengthening training exercises [24]. The administration of relevant government agencies should follow the principle of proportionality and achieve epidemic control with minimum intervention in basic rights and minimum burden [25]. Only by following the law, strictly enforcing the law, and punishing violations of the law so that “there is complete freedom within the law and no democracy outside the law,” can we form a good cultural atmosphere of the rule of law and create a good social environment for the cultivation of the rule of law thinking of the educational objects [26]. Democracy and the legal system are essential in the protection of citizens’ basic rights and the consistent exercise of rights and obligations [27]. Epidemic prevention and control must implement the principle of governance according to the law in standardized and accurate law enforcement and implementation policies, implementing zoning, grading, and classified governance. This will effectively safeguard the fundamental interests and fundamental rights of the overwhelming majority of the people. For example, in terms of mobility restrictions, high-income families are more likely to reduce their social ties by reducing mobility, but low-income families may not have this flexibility. This inequality has a significant impact on the spread of diseases and requires comprehensive policy planning by administrative organs in accordance with the law [28].

As the main body of administrative compulsory education in response to major epidemic situations, teachers’ legal cultivation is directly related to the effectiveness of education. However, few teachers have the legal professional background needed for the implementation of administrative compulsory education in response to major epidemic situations. The cultivation of the legal quality of teachers should be strengthened. On the one hand, we should actively encourage law graduates and arrange for law teachers to teach administrative compulsory education courses in response to major epidemic situations. On the other hand, we should make full use of the existing teachers, strengthen the training of teachers without a legal professional background, help them master legal knowledge, strengthen legal awareness, and improve legal cultivation in the form of collective lesson preparation and special lectures. We should establish a regular assessment system to ensure that teachers are competent in the important task of compulsory administrative education in response to major epidemic situations [29]. “Laws help create the infrastructure through which emergencies are detected, prevented, declared, and addressed.” [30].

4.2. Guide the People to Support Administrative Compulsion in Response to the Epidemic Situation

We need to improve the design of educational content and encourage people to support administrative compulsion in response to the epidemic. Among China’s laws and regulations on managing major epidemic situations, unified standards should be established for the initiation, implementation, procedures, and concepts related to administrative compulsion. In the current decentralized legislative model, we should refine the abstract legal provisions, scientifically and uniformly define the relevant principles, and supplement the operable legislative interpretation. Detailed provisions should be made for specific norms, such as the initiation, implementation, means, supervision, compensation, and relief for administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations. We should revise the old and outdated legal norms and establish a unified coordination mechanism for all departments responding to major epidemic situations. We should institutionalize and normalize unified coordination mechanisms through judicial interpretation, thereby solving the problem of responsibility conflict and contradiction in all administrative departments. The above improvement measures could promote the educational subject of administrative compulsion. This would facilitate the accurate grasp of the basic concepts and the development of educational activities. The constitutional supervision of special powers could help the country to manage emergencies and any abuse of emergency power [31]. Canada is an example. In a constitutional revolution, it successfully removed the tradition of martial law and placed the use of the right to declare a state of emergency firmly under constitutional control [32]. Two approaches could be taken to solve the problem of the stringent restriction of “state emergency power” in China’s Constitution. First, there could be an expansive legislative interpretation of the “state of emergency” clause of the Constitution. Second, the Constitution should be amended to clearly stipulate the state of emergency and “state emergency power” with explicit constitutional provisions.

We should improve education on the concept of the rule of law in administrative compulsion in major epidemic situations. After the occurrence of a major epidemic, the traditional administrative concept pays too much attention to prioritizing efficiency, but if efficiency is divorced from fairness and justice, the administrative goal is difficult to achieve. At the same time, the administrative subject should be educated to change the traditional “official standard” notion, not simply following the single principle of public interests but comprehensively measuring the balance between public interest and personal interests. Administrative compulsion is a “high power” administrative act that seriously involves citizens’ personal and property rights, requiring a special emphasis on the right to relief. Moreover, compared with general administrative relief, administrative compulsion relief has highly specific features requiring special provisions [33]. For the objects of education, we should cultivate awareness of the appropriate relief. For example, in the case of a major epidemic, the administrative counterpart subject to administrative compulsion also has the right to promptly and conveniently file an administrative reconsideration or an administrative lawsuit. We should cultivate awareness of the tort compensation of educational objects. In response to major epidemic situations, the administrative subject often damages the personal rights and interests of the administrative counterpart based on the need to protect public interests. The victims should receive fair and reasonable compensation to ensure the enthusiasm of people’s cooperation with the crisis, thereby ensuring a comprehensive and effective response to the epidemic.

Of course, it is good that this method has achieved initial results. In the recent epidemic situation in Shenzhen, we clearly saw flexible cases of epidemic publicity and education. Medical administrators made the people cooperate with epidemic prevention measures through law popularization publicity, not only improving the efficiency of epidemic monitoring but also easing the relationship between the people and the administrative law enforcement agencies. People’s heartfelt understanding and praise for administrative law enforcement personnel were evident. For example, citizens spontaneously provided food for medical care and administrative law enforcement personnel, and artists spontaneously drew epidemic prevention and control paintings to praise medical care personnel and administrative workers. In contrast, in some foreign countries, there have been extreme demonstrations and violent conflicts because of the government’s imposition of home isolation. The inevitable result is that the conflict between the people and the government escalated and the government repeatedly lost control of epidemic prevention and control.

4.3. Promoting Law Popularization Education on Administrative Compulsion in Campus Classroom Networks

The full scope of authority should be given to the role of education carriers and the promotion of the law on the popularization of education on administrative compulsion in campus classroom networks. This would be an important link that strengthens the publicity of legal education and improves the educational effect of administrative compulsion. We should increase publicity efforts by constantly using all kinds of media, such as television, newspapers, radio, and the internet, to deliver publicity and promote educational activities. When we use traditional media to carry out publicity, we strengthen the innovation and application of new media, making full use of the characteristics of fast communication speed and wide coverage of new media, actively exploring publicity forms and contents that are appropriate to the image of the new era and improving the publicity effect of compulsory administrative education in response to major epidemic situations.

New media has developed rapidly in recent years and plays an important role in student groups. Institutions that are responsible for the rule of law education should incorporate the use of campus microblogs, WeChat, and other new media into the overall layout of rule of law education and make full use of new media carriers for students’ rule of law publicity and education. The strong information dissemination ability of the internet and the diversified visual expression of information enable the original obscure and rigid knowledge of the rule of law to be conveyed in videos and dynamic GIF diagrams, thereby making the relevant knowledge of administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations more vivid and popular. Compared with traditional media, new media has the characteristics of openness, virtuality, and interactivity. The massive information storage capability of new media is also an important reason why students generally rely on new media [34]. The development of new media technology has made the campus classroom network an important carrier of contemporary student education. The campus classroom network is not only a key platform for the promotion of the rule of law but also an important platform for the cultivation of students’ legal consciousness [35]. In the comprehensive fight against epidemic prevention, primary and secondary schools postponed school openings, and students studied at home. Local education departments and schools have adopted the organization and deployment of “non-stop teaching and non-stop school.” They combined the online teaching platform and the situation of each school, organizing teachers to set up online classes and engage in online teaching according to local conditions. We should strengthen the supervision of the communication characteristics of online classrooms and set up a special epidemic knowledge section to publicize the rule of law on administrative compulsion.

Campus classroom networks have the closest and most direct contact with students. They constitute an important channel for carrying out information consultation with teenagers. We can extend our reliance on classroom teaching to make full use of the media to integrate legal education resources, building students’ legal education databases with the help of the powerful information aggregation of web media. We should engage in interactive Q&A and learning exchanges, maximizing information sharing between teachers and students and vice versa. We should strengthen the construction of campus networks, improving their technical ability and thereby forming a multi-faceted linkage of various online classroom platforms. This will enable students’ ideology to closely follow current affairs and politics and improve their legal awareness of administrative compulsion in epidemic response. The effect will be active cooperation with the administrative coercive measures implemented by the administrative body and support for the national epidemic prevention and control work. The combination of typical legal events in the epidemic response and specific legal knowledge will make online classrooms more attractive. It will improve students’ awareness of legal knowledge, effectively promote legal education, and enable students to consciously acquire legal knowledge in response to major epidemic situations.

4.4. Enhancing the Effect of Administrative Compulsory Law Popularization Education in Response to the Epidemic Situation

An education effectiveness evaluation system should be established to enhance the educational effect of administrative compulsion in an epidemic response. A multi-dimensional and diversified education effectiveness evaluation system should be established. First, we must answer the four major questions regarding the subject, object, mediator, and scope of administrative compulsory education effectiveness evaluation in the specific time and space situation of a major epidemic. We must clarify who will evaluate, what is to be evaluated, what are the evaluation methods, and how the evaluation is to be implemented. Finally, we should summarize and evaluate previous educational effectiveness. We should also point out the direction for the future improvement of the legal cultivation of the people [36]. Education including K-12 and higher education are among the sectors designated as critical infrastructure and are part of the government facilities sector.

When designing evaluation indicators, we should organically combine quantitative and qualitative evaluation and formative and summative evaluation, making the development processes of students, teachers, schools, and courses an integral part of the evaluation [37]. Legal education is different from cultural curriculum education, and its evaluation method differs from traditional paper tests. Education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemics is essentially quality education. It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of quality education by using quantitative indicators. An evaluation method could combine a network survey and a written questionnaire. The representativeness and pertinence of the test could be ensured by using different test papers for the different age stages. Sampling should consider the main influencing factors in students’ evaluation of rule of law education [38].

The evaluation of the effectiveness of compulsory administrative education in response to major epidemic situations involves not only the evaluation of students but also the evaluation of the rule of law education of schools and teachers. This evaluation mainly examines whether the management of the rule of law education curriculum by schools or teachers has been established, whether the teaching content is properly arranged, and whether the teaching hours are sufficient. The evaluation should be conducted by a third-party agency [39].

5. Conclusions

At present, epidemic prevention and control are still in a critical period. The study of administrative compulsory legal education in response to major epidemic situations plays an important role in the implementation of epidemic prevention and control. Based on the content and significance of the popularization of legal education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations, this paper proposes an optimization path by analyzing the existing problems in education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations. There are two levels: education management and education implementation. Education management subjects in the process of administrative compulsory education in response to major epidemic situations include emergency command institutions, competent health administrative departments, and other relevant departments. The education implementation subjects refer to the education and publicity departments of compulsory administrative education. The objects of education management include the teaching and publicity personnel who participate directly in the compulsory administrative education activities and the general audience who receive the compulsory administrative education. The objects of education implementation refer to the broad masses of the people who receive this education.

Carrying out education related to administrative compulsion can spread the correct concept of the rule of law, cultivate citizens’ legal beliefs, enhance citizens’ collective consciousness, restrict citizens’ code of conduct, and maintain a stable social order. However, there are still some problems in education on administrative compulsion in response to major epidemic situations in China. The problems include the insufficient strength of educational subjects, lack of educational content, imperfect educational methods, and imperfect educational evaluation systems. Therefore, the state should strengthen the construction of educational subjects and improve the legal cultivation of administrative organs in administration. It should improve the design of educational content and encourage people to support administrative compulsion in response to the epidemic, giving full play to the role of education carriers and promoting legal popularization education on administrative compulsion in campus classroom networks, thereby establishing an effective education evaluation system that will improve the effectiveness of administrative compulsory law popularization education in response to the epidemic situation.