Promoting judicial reform on Gansu visit

Updated: 2016-08-29
By Jiang Xingguang ( chinadaily.com.cn )

When Zhou Qiang, president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), revisited Diebu County People's Court two years later on Aug 24, he found that the old courthouse had been replaced by a new one. Poorly-equipped offices had given way to modern and efficient facilities.

Happily, Zhou encouraged officers at the court, which is located at the border of the Tibet Plateau, to continue to work hard providing judicial services to the local people.

In the following two days, Zhou, who is also chief justice, visited several places in Northwest China's Gansu province, inspecting judicial progress and promoting reform of the legal system.

The Ningan District people’s Court in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, is one of the courts for pilot judicial reform.

As part of the reform, judges at the court are shouldering more responsibility for their own cases. Trial efficiency has been greatly improved.

Judicial reforms have raised the quality and efficiency of court rulings, said Zhou, advancing the goal of "letting people feel the justice and fairness in every case".

Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of China's Supreme People's Court, makes a field inspection at the Intermediate People's Court of the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture. [Photo by Sun Ruofeng/People's Court Daily]

"With the deepening of the judicial reform, honest and clean practice should be enhanced within the Party," said Zhou. "Justice serves the people. Justice from the courts should be part of the reform achievements. We should never let down the expectations of the Party and the people."

At the Qingyang Intermediate People's Court, Zhou learned about progress in the judicial system over the past few years, especially in Internet information construction such as live online broadcasts of court proceedings.

After the inspection, Zhou met with officers at the Gansu Higher People’s Court and exchanged views and ideas with the local NPC deputies and CPPCC members.

The National People's Congress (NPC) is China's top legislature, and the China People's Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC) serves as China's top advisory body.

Zhou emphasized that sticking to strict judicial procedures safeguards the development and stability of overall national reform.

China is acting on its new vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, the five cornerstones proposed by President Xi Jinping for China to secure resilient, sustainable growth.

Zhou also said that judicial reform should lay a solid foundation for dealing with non-performing "zombie enterprises" which cannot survive without bank loans and support from local governments, and provide support for financial innovation along the "Belt and Road".