Print

Mail

wiki links

China vows to address corrupt courts, death penalty

"[We were] resolute in smashing crimes which endanger state security and ... activities carried out by separatists."

Jia Chunwang, China's top prosecutor

Flooded with mounting complaints of corruption and official abuses, China's top judge and prosecutor promised yesterday to improve professional standards in the country's courts and listen more closely to the public.

In annual reports to the National People's Congress, they also promised to "refine" its controversial death penalty review process, but gave no explanation.

China imposes the death penalty for offenses ranging from murder to nonviolent crimes such as tax evasion, and is believed to account for most of the world's executions.

China's courts are often criticized for their frequent use of capital punishment, low professional standards and interference by Communist Party officials in rulings.

The judicial system is "trying its best to raise the quality of trials so as to reduce repeated complaints" from the same person about the same case, said the report by Xiao Yang (蕭揚), president of the Supreme People's Court.

He called on Chinese court officials to handle complaints more swiftly, while protecting petitioners from retaliation in cases where judges themselves are the target of grievances.

Courts nationwide handled more than 4 million complaints from the general public last year, while the number filed with the Supreme Court jumped 24 percent to 147,665, he said.

Xiao didn't detail those complaints, but many involve the seizure of land by local officials, unpaid wages, embezzlement of public money and other abuses.

Courts are also concerned about repeat complainers who gather collectively to voice grievances, Xiao said. He didn't elaborate, but the government worries that rising discontent about corruption and judicial abuses could threaten communist rule.

Xiao promised more training for judges and more openness at trials.

"By raising the political, professional and moral quality of judges and their staff ... we will raise the quality of trials," he said in his report.

Jia Chunwang (賈春旺), China's top prosecutor, also promised to improve training for local prosecutors and stepped up efforts to combat corruption and official abuses.

In an apparent effort to show that courts are giving a full airing to cases, Xiao said rulings in some 17,000 were overturned last year, though that accounted for only 0.34 percent of the total.

China will send some judges for training to Hong Kong and Macau, two former European colonies that have retained Western-style court systems since their return to Chinese rule, according to Xiao.

China will also do more to punish crooked judges and "deepen the struggle against corruption," he said.

But China's frequent use of the death penalty barely received mention in yesterday's judicial reports.

Xiao didn't give a total figure for the number of executions carried out last year, though he said appeal courts upheld 400 death sentences for economic offenses such as smuggling, tax fraud, counterfeiting and bribery.

The Rome-based group Hands Off Cain said China executed at least 5,000 people in 2003. Amnesty International put the figure at 726, but said that was based on incomplete information and the true number was believed to be much higher.

Meanwhile, China arrested over 800,000 people last year for a variety of crimes including endangering state security and being involved in separatist and terrorist activities, Jia said yesterday.

In total, 811,102 people were held, an 8.3 percent increase from 2003.

Jia said last year authorities were actively involved in anti-drug campaigns, crackdowns on pornographic web sites and other Internet crimes.

"[We were] resolute in smashing crimes which endanger state security and those criminal activities carried out by separatists, religious extremists and violent terrorists," Jia told lawmakers.

Endangering state security is a term China's communist leaders routinely use to detain people who oppose its rule.
This story has been viewed 2073 times.