The number of judges will increase by 10 percent in China over
the next few years in an effort to make up the country's inadequate
trial force, Xiao
Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court, said
Saturday.??
A national higher court presidents' meeting held in Beijing from
December 16 to 18 released statistics showing that Chinese courts
dealt with 8.08 million criminal, civil and administrative cases in
2003, 4.59 million more than in 1993.
The number and variety of cases have risen remarkably in China
in recent years, but the number of judges and clerks remains
unchanged, causing difficulties for courts to ensure timely
trials.
Jiang Yunchang, vice president of the Supreme People's Court,
said yesterday that 12,782 judges and clerks will be recruited for
local courts, especially for local courts at the grass-roots
levels.
In a keynote speech to the meeting, Xiao Yang vowed to improve
the country's judicial capacity to meet the requirements of
economic development.
Xiao said judicial capacity mainly includes "striking hard" on
severe criminal cases and cracking down on financial and economic
fraud, intellectual property infringement, human rights violations
in judicial fields and official power abuse.
China's per capita GDP exceeded US$1,000 last year. It is
widely accepted that when a country's per capita GDP stands
between US$1,000-3,000, it is likely to be in a transitional period
featuring a variety of sharp social contradictions.
Xiao acknowledged that China was undergoing such a period now
and that the number of court cases related to state-owned company
reforms, salary in arrears, illegal land acquisition and illegal
housebreaking, has risen dramatically.
"During such a period, the country needs judicial capacity
improvement," he said.?
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2004)