SPC official underlines 'pain point' in judgment enforcement

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10:59

A senior official of China's top court acknowledged on Tuesday that there have been difficulties in guaranteeing full enforcement of some court judgments, calling the problem a "pain point."

Liu Guixiang, a member of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) Judicial Committee, made the remarks when answering a question from CGTN reporter Hou Na at a press conference on the sidelines of China's annual legislative session.

Liu Guixiang, a member of the SPC Judicial Committee, speaks at a press conference on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, March 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

The SPC launched a campaign in March 2016 to tackle difficulties in enforcing judgments. Over the past three years, courts across China have handled 20.44 million judgment enforcement cases, with 19.36 million completed and 4.4 trillion yuan (about 650 billion U.S. dollars) repaid, according to a work report of the SPC.

Despite the progress, Liu noted that there have been thorny issues in the handling of assets and the distribution of repayments, making the enforcement of some court orders very difficult and time-consuming.

"I do agree that full enforcement cannot be guaranteed in some cases," Liu said. "For example, the cash cannot be put in certain persons' pockets."

In order to repay a creditor, the court usually tries to auction a real estate property, but someone may suddenly claim ownership of the property and raise objections, leading to more lawsuits, he said.

Sometimes the auction of a property could fail, but the creditor refuses to be repaid with that property. "Then there is nothing we can do with the property," he added.

In some cases, there may be different lenders who need repayments, the SPC official said, noting that there could be a distribution issue. The court will need to "consider all the concerned parties' interests" when distributing the repayments, he explained.

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