We begin with China's largest annual political event, the Two Sessions. The heads of China's Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate delivered their work reports to the National People's Congress. They cited achievements made over the past five years on cases of corruption, correcting wrongful convictions, and improving social welfare. CGTN's reporter Su Yuting has more.
It's their chance to tell the nation their accomplishments. On Friday, China's chief justice and procurator-general delivered their work reports to NPC deputies. Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said between 2013 and 2017, the Supreme People's Court was able to wrap up the vast majority of the 82-thousand cases it handled. He said the Intellectual Property Law has been enhanced, and judicial reform further improved. Zhou added that about 13,000 people were convicted for bribery, and 39 major wrongful judgments were rectified.
ZHOU QIANG PRESIDENT, CHINA SUPREME PEOPLE'S COURT "The Supreme People's Court has resolutely implemented the decisions of the CPC central committee. Eighteen reform-related tasks led by the Supreme People's Court have been completed. Sixty-five measures to comprehensively deepen reform of the People's Courts have been fully implemented. There has been important progress in the People's Courts' reform."
Procurator-General Cao Jianming meanwhile prioritized the building of a safer China. He said authorities approved the arrest of over 4.5 million suspected criminals and prosecuted around seven million over the past five years. Since October 2014, 222 fugitives implicated in duty-related crimes have been repatriated or persuaded to return to China from 42 countries and regions. Among them, 35 were listed in an Interpol red notice. Cooperation with other countries was also enhanced. In 2017, China successfully hosted the 22nd International Conference of Prosecutors. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has signed 145 bilateral agreements with judicial institutions in 95 countries and regions.
CAO JIANMING, PROCURATOR-GENERAL SUPREME PEOPLE'S PROCURATORATE "We put emphasis on investigating prominent cases. Over 250,000 duty crimes were registered, an increase of 16.4 percent compared with the past five years. Over 55 billion yuan in losses have been recovered. Among them, there are 15,234 officials at the county- and division-level and 2,405 officials at the bureau-level. Under the unified leadership of the Party's Central Committee, since the 18th National Congress, procuratorial institutions have investigated 120 former officials at or above the provincial- or ministerial-level and prosecuted 105 former officials at the same level."
NPC deputies hailed the two work reports.
GUO XIAOYAN NPC DEPUTY "We have seen that the country has emphasized the importance of the rule of law. Particularly after the 19th CPC National Congress, significant progress has been made."
WEI GANG NPC DEPUTY "I think over the past few years, our judicial system reform has made progress at the grassroots level. We've seen the notable reform to limit the quota of judges to help them in making impartial and sound judgements."
SU YUTING BEIJING "Great achievements have been made over the past five years to advance reforms of the country's rule of law and governance. China's chief justice and procurator-general said more efforts will be made in promoting social fairness and justice to safeguard the well-being of the people. Su Yuting, CGTN, Beijing."