According to the new five-year guideline for reforming China's court system released by the Supreme People's Court, 65 measures will be taken between 2014 and 2018 to guarantee greater fairness and justice.

The plan calls for more protection for defendants, such as doing away with the requirement to wear prison uniforms or prison clothes during the trial.

Other guidelines include establishing a performance evaluation system for judges, and improving the mechanism for protecting lawyers' rights. The reform plan also promises to boost transparency, make more information available to the public, opening media galleries in courts for certain trials and changing the jurisdiction of courts to reduce any local bias.