Deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee have widely acknowledged the performance and achievements of procuratorial organs in fulfilling their duties and responsibilities in 2021, after Procurator-General Zhang Jun delivered the work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) to the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress on March 8.

Promoting high-quality economic development

Procuratorial organs were recognized for giving full play to the rule of law in guiding, regulating and safeguarding the country's pursuit of high-quality development.

Professor He Qiang at the School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics, who is also a member of the CPPCC National Committee, said the SPP established an office in the China Securities Regulatory Commission last year, which has facilitated the crackdown on securities-related crimes and promoted the healthy growth of the capital market.

Professor Pan Yue with Xiamen University's School of Economics, also an NPC deputy, hailed the procuratorial efforts to punish crimes of disrupting the order of the market economy, pump up equity, justice and efficiency in the business environment, and stimulate market vitality.

One priority of the procuratorial efforts to serve innovative development is to enhance protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). Data shows that 14,000 people were prosecuted last year for IPR violations, up 15.4 percent year on year.

Procuratorial organs have focused on key areas and issues related to IPR protection with more stringent endeavors, and provided strong support for the healthy and innovative development of enterprises, according to NPC deputy Wang Dongxin, also deputy general manager of the CNMC Ningxia Orient Group, China's largest tantalum, niobium production enterprise.

In view of Xu Weilin, executive vice-president of Sichuan University, it's necessary to step up judicial moves to help colleges and universities at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation. The NPC deputy said he believes such efforts will reduce the cost of IPR protectors and increase that of the offenders.

Adopting a people-orientated approach

Committed to the people-oriented philosophy, procuratorates have spared no effort to solve the most pressing difficulties of great concern to the people in their duty performance, making the people feel fairness and justice.

Such endeavors to safeguard the rights and interests of migrant workers have impressed Zou Bin, project quality director of the General Contracting Company of the China Construction Fifth Engineering Division. The NPC deputy said procuratorial organs across the country went all out to help recover unpaid wages, and some of them played an active part in coordinating legal aid centers and law firms to support this initiative.

Procuratorial organs filed and handled 169,000 public interest litigation cases in 2021, reflecting the country's progress in this regard.

Che Jie, Party chief of the Grandall Law Firm and also an NPC deputy, said procuratorates have intensified efforts in public interest litigation cases involving environment and resource conservation, food and drug safety, and protection of the legitimate rights and interests of heroes and martyrs. Che said such litigations play an increasingly important role in modernizing the national governance system and capacity.

Such efforts have also been actively made to help meet China's pledge to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Gao Jie, deputy procurator-general of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Procuratorate, said a new model of enterprise transformation placed under the supervision of both administrative and procuratorial authorities was agreed at a meeting on containing air pollution caused by burning coal, oil and gas in Shaanxi province. 

These measures by procuratorates also serve to meet people's ever-growing needs for a better life, said Gao, also a member of the CPPCC National Committee.

Enhanced supervision safeguards judicial impartiality

In 2021, great efforts were made to boost the capability, quality and efficacy of legal supervision, both in the review of criminal and civil cases and strengthened actions against duty-related crimes of judicial personnel. 

The rules on supervision of civil proceedings by people's procuratorates and related normative documents, revised last year by the SPP, feature new concepts, more comprehensive norms, broader coverage and stricter protocols, said Wei Zhenling, deputy procurator-general of Liuzhou People's Procuratorate, in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Wei, also a member of the CPPCC National Committee, said such supervision requires cooperation with other departments to create win-win results and jointly guarantee judicial justice.

In East China's Zhejiang province, procuratorial organs have actively piloted application of digital technologies in legal supervision, according to the province's procurator-general Jia Yu, also an NPC deputy. A case management system initiated by these procuratorates has integrated the participation of 777 law enforcement and judicial organs in the province, and more than 300,000 cases were processed online, with 99 percent of criminal cases transferred online, said Jia.