Criminal Justice

According to the Legal Daily, the Ministry of Justice has issued instructions to officials in charge of re-education through labor ("RETL") to improve the safety conditions under which detainees work in the system. Public security authorities generally reserve RETL for those who commit relatively minor crimes, and they administer it with little or no judicial oversight. The Ministry urges that officials improve their inspections of working conditions in RETL units. The goal of the safety program is zero injuries or deaths in the entire system. For a further description of government plans to reform the RETL system, click here.

Some National People's Congress members have proposed to criminalize an employer's withholding of wages owed to workers, reports the Beijing News. Writer Fang Chaogui explains that, under the Penal Code, unauthorized employer withholding of wages would be considered stealing private property. Fang believes that company managers who withhold wages would take the matter more seriously if they faced up to five years in prison for such offenses. Professor He Bing of the University of Law and Politics suggests, on the other hand, that criminal sanctions would be difficult to enforce, and proposes instead that companies that withhold wages be barred from receiving bank loans until they repay wage arrears. NPC representatives criticized Professor's He's method, saying that, compared to criminal penalties, it would not be strong enough an incentive to resolve a problem now involving millions of dollars.

Supreme People's Court President Xiao Yang has urged the courts at national, provincial, and local levels to increase their efforts to ensure that migrant workers obtain their back wages, reports the China Court Net. Xiao declared that the courts should concentrate on the expeditious settlement of wage arrears cases by investigating cases quickly and holding trials, deciding cases, and enforcing court orders promptly. Xiao suggested that provincial and lower level courts inform citizens of their rights and travel widely in their regions to hold trials. A number of government bodies have issued directives about wage arrears in the past year, but problems with unpaid wages remain widespread and unresolved.

The China Youth Daily reports that over the past year, Liaoning province procuratorates have introduced a new system to clear the names of individuals mistakenly or falsely accused of crimes. The report notes that false accusations damage the reputations of the accused. When such cases arise under Liaoning’s new system, procuratorates are required to investigate and rectify the "harmful effects" of any false accusations. In one case described in the article, a local procuratorate held meetings to publicize its findings that a local enterprise manager had been wrongfully accused. As yet, no information is available from independent sources to confirm whether or not the procuratorates have implemented the new system in practice.

China’s often criticized "re-education through labor" (RETL) system is to be reformed and incorporated into a new law entitled the "PRC Law on the Correction of Unlawful Acts," according to a March 2 report in the Beijing News. The article reports that the draft law has been incorporated into the NPC legislative plan for 2005, and the NPC Standing Committee has scheduled a first reading of the draft for April of this year. (For a summary of China’s 2005 legislative plan, click here). The report also notes that more than 10 percent of the NPC delegates signed proposals in 2004 calling for reform of the RETL system.

According to a report on the China Court Net Web site, interviews with unnamed Supreme People's Court (SPC) sources identify three primary areas for judicial reform during 2005: (1) the system of people's assessors; (2) court adjudication committees; and (3) court zaishen (rehearing) procedures.

The SPC "Directive On Improving the System of People's Assessors (Renmin Shenpanyuan)" will enter into force on May 1. This directive regularizes the practice of using lay assessors to participate in court hearings and clarifies that these laypersons, who are often selected and screened by court personnel, enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as judges. These rights and responsibilities include determining the facts and interpreting the law. Chinese authorities bill the "people's assessor" system as an anti-corruption device that will allow popular supervision of the judiciary.

A Guangming Daily article criticized the common practice in Chinese courts called "qingshi," in which a court requests an advisory opinion of a higher court before ruling on a case.

In theory, a judge should make a qingshi request only to clarify legal issues, but in practice judges make such requests to avoid responsibility for deciding cases that involve powerful government agencies. Officials from such agencies often press judges to issue favorable decisions. If judges bow to external pressure in such cases, they may be disciplined by higher court officials for failing to follow the law. If they resist such pressure, judges risk incurring the wrath of Communist Party or government officials. Under these circumstances, judges often use the qingshi procedure to shift responsibility for deciding cases to higher-level courts.

The China Youth Daily summarized China’s 2005 legislative plan in a March 3 report. According to the report, the NPC and its Standing Committee will consider 31 legislative proposals, including 20 draft laws and 11 amendment proposals, in 2005. The NPC’s legislative priorities reportedly include the Law on States of Emergency, the Anti-Monopoly Law, the Law on Administrative Coercive Measures, and amendments to the Securities Law. For the full agenda, see below.