In 2015, President Xi Jinping urged comprehensive promotion of the rule of law to safeguard the people's rights and interests. China has made progress in scientific legislation, judicial reform and public security, and enhanced social fairness and justice according to the roadmap for achieving that goal.

At the end of last year, two major cases, one in Haikou, capital of South China’s Hainan province and the other in Baoding, North China’s Hebei province, were called in court on the same day – Dec 29. Their judgments gave people more confidence in China’s rule of law.

Due to unclear facts and insufficient evidence, the Supreme People’s Court retried the case of Chen Man, a man with a suspended death sentence for intentional homicide and arson who has been imprisoned for 23 years.

In Baoding, the former deputy director of the National Energy Administration's Coal Department, Wei Pengyuan, was tried on charges of taking more than 200 million yuan ($32.57 million) in bribes.

The goal of China’s rule of law -- “Let people feel fairness and justice in every single case” -- was unprecedentedly deeply rooted in the minds of Chinese people in the past year.

In May, 2015, a couple aged over 70 in Yancheng city, Jiangsu province took the local market supervision and administration department for environmental pollution in their residential community to court. The couple won the administrative case, thanks to a revised Administrative Procedure Law that took effect on May 1, 2015, and requiring the chief executive of an administrative organ to enter a plea.

Laws and their amendments have changed people’s lives. According to the newly-approved Amendment IX to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the criminal law now also extends to purchasers of women and children.

The Law on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution received its first major revision since its official implementation in 1988. The new version doubles the clauses and focuses on the prevention and control of haze with strict regulations.

Last year, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the top legislature, formulated four new laws and revised 18 others, setting milestones in China’s scientific legislation and the rule of law.

Beyond the textual changes to statutes, the judicial reform started and progressed well last year. President Xi pointed out that deepening the judicial reform and building a fair, efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system are important measures for promoting modernization of the country's governance and abilities.

On May 1, 2015, people’s courts at all levels began to carry out the new case-filing registration system to ensure clear procedures for every single case and claim to be handled. Three days later, a lawyer brought a luggage full of materials for 208 cases involving heating supply to the court in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. The lawyer took only a day rather than the year it would have taken him to file all 208 cases before the implementation of the new case-filing registration system.

On December 16, 2015, the people's procuratorate in Qingyun county, Shandong province, brought a public-interest lawsuit against the local environmental protection department for failing to fulfill its duties in accordance with the law. It was China’s first public interest litigation administrative case since the launch of a pilot program in this area.

The judicial reform was expanded to more areas from the initial seven provinces and cities. The reforms on specifying the number of judicial personnel, and on the judicial accountability system have also made progress in 2015.

The public security authorities and judicial organs took measures to prevent all kinds of risks and cracked down on crimes in financial fields, helping to protect people’s property and enhance their sense of security.

A total of 254 telecom fraud suspects from the Chinese mainland were brought back from Indonesia and Cambodia by Chinese police on Nov 10, 2015. They were accused of involvement in more than 4,000 transnational phone-fraud crimes.

China will move on to improve public awareness of the rule of law and achieve the goal despite any future difficulties and challenges in 2016.

Source: CCTV