Judicial work must live up to people's expectation
12/3/2006 11:24
Ying Yong, president of Zhejiang Provincial High Court in east China, has
been very busy these days ever since the annual session of China's parliament
convened on March 5 in Beijing.
Ying, who is attending the session as a
non-voting observer, hopes to collect suggestions and even criticism from
deputies to the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), so that the judicial
work in his province could be improved step by step to the satisfaction of the
broad masses.
All chief judges and prosecutors at the provincial level on
Saturday were listening attentively to the work reports delivered by China's top
judge Xiao Yang and top prosecutor Jia Chunwang at the NPC annual session.
Twenty-five of them, who are concurrently NPC deputies, were sitting here and
there in the Great Hall of the People, but the non-deputy ones had to sit on the
visitors' seats, bearing the same obligation like Ying's.
It was the first
time that a NPC annual session opened to provincial-level chief judges and
prosecutors since the NPC was established 52 years ago.
"Although it is not
necessary for us to make proposals and submit bills to the session as other
deputies do, it is still a tough job for us," Ying said.
Ying told Xinhua
that he was always ready to be subject to NPC deputies' supervision. "I am
willing to answer all the questions raised by NPC deputies, discuss with them
and report some difficult problems to the Supreme Court."
Media reports show
that Chinese people are not very satisfied with the country's judicial work, and
the lower votes on approving the work reports of the Supreme People's Court and
the Supreme People's Procuratorate in the past few years indicate that there are
much to be improved in the judicial work.
In February 2001, the Shengyang
People's Congress in Northeast China's Liaoning Province rejected the work
report of the city's intermediate court. The event was like an "earthquake" for
the judicial community.
It was the first case in the country that the work
report of a judicial organ was vetoed by the people's congress.
Other cases
in the judicial sector also stirred people's anger: Tian Fengqi, former
president of the Liaoning Provincial High Court, received life sentence for his
taking millions of yuan bribery and improperly steering business to his son's
company; Mai Chongkai, former president of the Supreme People's Court in the
wealthy southern province of Guangdong was found guilty of taking bribes
totaling 1.06 million yuan (US$128,100); Wu Zhenhan, the former chief judge in
central China's Hunan Province has been arrested on charges of lawbreaking; Ding
Xinfa, a former prosecutor in east China's Jiangxi Province has been sentenced
to 17 years for bribery and embezzlement.
Leaders in charge of the country's
judicial work were "shocked" by the cases and they were determined to make a
fundamental change in the judicial work by introducing all-round supervision
from the people's congresses. Chinese top judge and prosecutors then decided to
ask their subordinates to have face-to-face interaction with NPC deputies,
answering their questions, ironing differences and winning their support over
their work.
"The voices of NPC deputies will definitely give these chief
judges and procurators quite a shake-up," said NPC deputy Chen Pengfei.
Over
the past nine years, Chen has submitted nearly 20 motions or proposals to the
National People's Congress with reference to judicial corruption.
"The
Chinese people are fairly concerned about the judicial work, so we should put
ourselves under the supervision of the people's congress, give an attentive ear
to their suggestions in order to improve the judicial work," said Chen Yunlong,
chief procurator of east China's Zhejiang Province.
"Face-to-face interaction
between NPC deputies and the judicial staff is necessary for improving the
judicial work and promoting judicial reforms," said He Bing, a professor with
China University of Political Science and Law.
"It's a good start for a more
transparent and opened people's congress system in China," he said.
Xinhua News
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