China's top judicial organs deliver annual reports: system playing bigger role in ensuring social stability
Global Times
By Cao Siqi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/3/12 22:08:41 Last Updated: 2019/3/12 22:47:23
Ranging from graft, local mafia, sexual assault, to copyright infringement, China's top court and procuratorate authorities said Tuesday that they have imposed high pressure on law violations, corrected wrongful convictions and safeguarded the good Samaritan spirit, showing that the country's judicial system is playing a bigger role in ensuring social stability.
Delivering their work reports Tuesday morning at the ongoing annual national legislative session, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang and Procurator-General Zhang Jun highlighted their progress in the past year.
The reports quickly made a splash on Chinese social media platforms and triggered Chinese netizens' heated discussions as they conveyed legal spirits in examples by listing a series of typical and controversial judicial cases last year.
Meanwhile, the reports also manifested a more open and intelligent Chinese judicial system such as the smart court, which uses big data to provide legal services for the public and the cloud system that helps judges find files of similar cases efficiently
Chinese legal experts hailed the huge progress in judicial reform as being more based on people's increasing demand for democracy, rule of law, fairness and justice, security and a better environment.
China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) handled 34,794 cases in 2018 and concluded 31,883 cases, up 22.1 percent and 23.5 percent year on year respectively.
Local courts saw an increase of 8.8 percent and 10.6 percent in the cases they handled and concluded, said the SPC report.
With unwavering resolve to bring corruption to justice, Chinese courts concluded 28,000 graft cases involving embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty last year. Of the 33,000 people involved, 18 were former officials at the provincial level or above. Meanwhile, 32 such former high-ranking officials, including Sun Zhengcai and Wang Sanyun, were charged.
Sun is the former Party chief of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, who was sentenced to life in prison in May 2018 for taking bribes of over 170 million yuan ($25.29 million), while Wang, former Party chief of Gansu Province, stood trial in October 2018, accused of using his position for taking bribes.
Justice for the people
Making headway in the campaign to combat organized crime and root out local mafia, the reports also revealed that Chinese courts concluded 5,489 related cases in 2018 which involved 29,000 criminals, while procuratorates across the country approved the arrest of 73,385 suspects involved in such crimes, among whom 61,188 were indicted.
Li Shenglong, deputy judge at the No.1 Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing, who is also a political advisor, told media after the session that the reports, based on facts and data, fully showcased the Chinese judiciary's efforts in safeguarding social justice and fairness.
On Chinese social media platforms, many users said that they were impressed by the judiciary's move to rectify wrongful convictions and solve problems that incurred strong public dissatisfaction.
For example, the local procuratorate did not prosecute Zhao Yu, who was detained for intentional assault injury, after stopping an attempted rape of his female neighbor.
Zhao posted on his Sina Weibo Tuesday that "I appreciated the acknowledgement from the Supreme People's Procuratorate and hope that the report could encourage more people to be a Good Samaritan without any worries."
Qin Qianhong, a constitutional law professor at Wuhan University, told the Global Times that the reports conveyed a strong message to the outside world that China's judiciary aims to fully protect people's rights and needs.
Cases like the Peppa Pig copyright infringement case and the private enterprise Kechley case, proved that message, Qin said.
In August 2018, the Hangzhou Internet Court adjudicated a copyright infringement case and ordered two offending Chinese companies to compensate the copyright owners of British animation Peppa Pig.
A 12-year dispute between Yulin Kechley Energy Investment Company and the Xi'an Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development Institute under Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources over mining rights worth 100 billion yuan was finally adjudicated by the SPC in favor of Kechley, Qin said, a landmark case of the central government ruling the country by law and protecting the property rights of private enterprises.
Cases relevant to intellectual property rights (IPR) were also highlighted in the SPC report. Chinese courts at all levels concluded 288,000 IPR cases of first instance in 2018, up 41.8 percent year on year.
A tribunal for IPR-related cases was set up at the Supreme People's Court last year to further strengthen judicial protection of IPR.
Protecting IPR means creating a better environment for the international exchange of business activities and also to help guarantee innovation by domestic entrepreneurs, Wang Wanqiong, a lawyer from the Chongqing Exceedon& Partners Law Firm, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Protecting personal safety and property security rights of entrepreneurs, especially those from the private sector, will also be highlighted in the future, Wang noted.
Challenges ahead
The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate will continue to provide legal guarantees for sustained and sound economic and social development and strengthen their team building, according to their reports.
Fostering a favorable business environment by improving the rule of law and offering better legal services will be a priority in 2019 to promote the country's high-quality development, said the judicial bodies' reports.
Having noted the decline in warrants, Qin said that prosecutors should have a clearer mind about their jobs and supervision responsibilities as the country has established a special supervision committee.
Qin also urged courts to continue fighting judicial corruption and promote judicial transparency. "Publicizing more judicial documents may be one of the most important steps," he said.
An increasing number of judicial documents are uploaded online and more cases are broadcast live via the website of China's judicial bodies, Wang noted.
This was "vivid evidence of China's efforts to promote judicial transparency," she said.
Although legal awareness has improved remarkably among Chinese people, many still exhibit limited knowledge of how to use the most appropriate legal means when disputes occur, Wang said.
For instance, the overuse of litigation in civil and commercial cases has brought huge pressure to China's judicial system, while non-litigation approaches, such as mediation and arbitration, are still strange to many, Wang said.
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