Legal Daily:

Over the past two years, the Plan to Build the Rule of Law in China (2020-2025), the outline in pursuit of building a law-based society (2020-2025), and the an outline on promoting the building of a rule of law government t (2020-2025) have been issued and implemented. We'd like to know how the relevant departments promote the implementation of these three policies? In particular, how do they advance the building of a government based on the rule of law? Thank you.

Tang Yijun:

Thank you for your questions. Formulating these three policies, like establishing the beams and pillars of a house for the building of the rule of law in China, is a significant decision and arrangement made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to promote comprehensive law-based governance in the new era. The formulation and implementation of the policies mark the basic formation of the overall pattern of comprehensive law-based governance in the new era. Building a rule-of-law China with good laws and governance has begun a new journey.

The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to implementing these policies. In February and September 2021, the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC Central Committee formulated and issued three division of labor plans for carrying out major measures involved in the policies. The Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the CPC Central Committee pushed to divide various important tasks and measures  between relevant annual work plans and important missions. It has formulated and issued important supporting documents and measures such as the index system for better building law-based municipal and county governments, the index system for building law-based society, the opinions on strengthening the building of socialist legal culture, and the opinions on further strengthening the building of rule of law in cities and counties. The implementation of the three policies is being vigorously and effectively advanced, and the progress is generally smooth.

You specifically asked about building a government based on the rule of law just now, which is an excellent question. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that forming a law-based government is the key task and main project of comprehensive law-based governance, and it is necessary to take the lead in making breakthroughs. The Office of the Rule of Law Commission of the Central Committee of the CPC, together with relevant departments, has taken a series of important measures to promote building a rule-of-law government.

First, we have promoted the improvement of the law-based administrative system. We strengthened legislation in key areas, emerging areas, and foreign-related areas and promoted the filing review of laws and regulations. We also cleaned up laws and regulations in areas like institution reform, free trade zone construction, and the implementation of the Civil Code. In the past decade, we have promoted the formulation and revision of more than 420 administrative regulations and abolished 59 after review.

Second, we have deepened reforms to streamline administration, delegate powers, improve regulation, and strengthen services. We have strived to create a market-oriented, law-based, and international business environment. All non-administrative approval items have been canceled, while administrative approval items have been greatly reduced. The governments of all provinces, cities, and counties have formulated and published lists of powers and responsibilities and continued to carry out the campaign of "reduction of certificates and more convenience for the people." We have pushed various localities and departments to clean up more than 21,000 certification items, effectively solving the problems of "absurd certification" and "repeated certification."

Third, we have actively promoted decision-making in accordance with the law. We formulated the interim regulations on major administrative decision-making procedures, comprehensively promoted the system of government lawyers and legal counsels, and further strengthened the review of the legality of administrative decisions.

Fourth, we have further promoted strict, standardized, impartial, and civilized law enforcement. We fully implemented the "three systems" of administrative law enforcement (regarding making the process public, recording the whole process, and legality review of major decisions) and organized and carried out pilot projects to build an administrative law enforcement coordination and supervision work system at the provincial, city, county, and township levels. Comprehensive law enforcement reforms in market supervision, ecological environment, agriculture, cultural markets, and transportation have been completed. We have strengthened the supervision of administrative reviews. Over the past ten years, administrative review agencies at all levels have handled more than 1.9 million administrative review cases, with an error-correction rate of 13.6%.

Fifth, we have deployed two batches of activities to construct rule-of-law demonstration governments nationwide. We selected 40 comprehensive demonstration areas and 24 single demonstration projects in the first batch, and the selection of the second batch is progressing in an orderly manner. All regions and departments attach growing importance to comprehensively building law-based governments. The efforts are increasing, and the results are becoming more impressive. 

Sixth, we have conducted inspection work on building law-based governance nationwide. This work has achieved full coverage at the provincial level. We have summarized and promoted 24 typical experiences, such as Beijing government's regulations on quickly responding to people's appeals, and Ma'anshan city's ten-year fishing ban for ecological preservation along Yangtze River Basin.  We have promoted the resolution of more than 80 typical issues, such as governmental departments' long-lasting non-payment of compensation, entrapment and administrative penalties that violate regulations. We also solved more than 820 various problems. So, the work has effectively made pressure felt, had responsibilities fulfilled, and promoted building a rule-of-law government. Thank you.

China News Service:

The difficulty of filing lawsuits was an issue the people were strongly concerned about in the past. What measures have the people's courts taken to address this problem over the past decade? And what progress has been made? Thank you.

Gao Jinghong:

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the people's courts have implemented reform of the case-filing registration system, meaning that the longstanding difficulty people had filing lawsuits is now history. In order to help people resolve their disputes in a more convenient, inclusive and cheaper way and give them more diverse choices, the people's courts have created a "one-stop, diversified service system for dispute resolution and litigation," which is unique worldwide, blazing a new path with Chinese characteristics that can ensure justice for the people.

First, we have shaped a model of coordinated governance and dispute resolution under the leadership of the Party committee to highlight China's advantages. Relying on the leadership of the Party, we have built the world's most interconnected dispute resolution mechanism. We invited NPC deputies, CPPCC members, administrative organs, all kinds of mediation organizations, lawyers, experts and scholars, as well as community-level organizations to establish a "court + society" system for solving disputes, providing people with a menu of services. The numbers of mediation organizations and mediators connected with the courts have increased from 1,264 and 14,000 in early 2018 to 83,000 and 335,000. A total of 29.62 million disputes have been mediated, with an average of 51 successfully mediated per minute. Diverse channels for dispute settlement not only help realize justice in a timely manner, but bring about mutual understanding and accommodation.

Second, we have opened online and offline integrated and sharing platforms, and established a one-stop service system for resolving disputes, thus creating a Chinese model. Courts at four levels have built one-stop litigation service centers, with the scope of services expanded from simply providing guidance for case filing in the past to now more than 50 items. All types of litigation cases are addressed in the centers, which have become "lawsuit service supermarkets." Last year, courts nationwide resolved more than 80% of civil disputes in litigation service centers, and the average time taken was 43% less than that of civil cases of first instance. The four levels of courts leveraged the unified online service platform to support the public in filing lawsuits and handling the whole process online, with total visits exceeding 2.7 billion. Online dispute resolution has become standard practice. The 12368 Litigation Service Hotline has helped address disputes at any time, with an average of 35,000 calls being received and handled per day and satisfaction rate exceeding 96%, which has greatly reduced the cost for people to resolve disputes.

Third, we have improved the service mechanism for addressing disputes in both urban and rural areas to provide a Chinese-style model. "Cross-region filing services" have been fully realized, with more than 13,000 service centers being established. Cases can be filed nearby and handled nationwide. A special service window for the elderly and a unified code service channel for lawyers have been fully implemented. Bilingual judges and a litigation guide written in Braille have helped various parties during lawsuits. Mediation platforms have entered rural areas and communities and gone online, connecting 9,852 people's courts and more than 70,000 community-level governance units, thereby providing people in both rural and urban areas with access to more high-quality legal services and allowing them to resolve their problems at home. In remote areas, judges go to villages to provide services in people's homes and conduct circuit case handling, making judicial services "zero-distance." Through these efforts, the public deeply feel the warmth and convenience of the socialist judicial system. 

Thank you.