Xiao Yang

We hope that the reform of the recruitment system for judges and the introduction of assistants will help establish a stricter system for entering the profession and that a better training system will improve the proficiency of judges.

Chinese courts at various levels strictly followed the principle of meting out penalty to the guilty in accordance with the law, and setting the innocent free in time, and pronounced 2, 162 criminal defendants innocent in year 2005.

The problem of many cases and few people ... has become especially apparent. The problem of overwhelming caseloads in many courts is in dire need of improvement.

China's current policy regarding death penalty is to preserve it but use it cautiously.

There is no stipulation on doing away with death penalty in China's existing laws, and there has been no decision on whether death penalty will no longer be applicable to certain kinds of crimes.

As of July 1, 2006, all the second-instance trials of death sentence cases shall be heard in open court.

Initial open court sessions of death penalty cases during their second verdict in some provinces and municipalities have proved to be successful. The Supreme People's Court is confident to spread it nationwide.

The number of complaints against courts and court staff, which was on the rise for years, began to drop for the first time last year.

To date, China's criminal, civil and administrative procedure laws have combined to form a relatively comprehensive system.

Courts have often been taken as branches of the government and judges viewed as civil servants who have to follow orders from superiors.

In 2006, our number one task is to persist in the Strike Hard campaign, strictly punish crimes that subvert state power and try to split the country.