China's SPC encourages petitions by video chat

China's top court will discourage petitioners from taking their grievances to Beijing by offering them video chats with officials, it announced on Friday.

The move, which will be targeted particularly at repeat petitioners, will make it more convenient and efficient for people to seek redress for court decisions, according to the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

The SPC has set up 16 video-equipped petition rooms. All petitioners can apply for video chats with SPC judges at local courts, it said.

The SPC said it will receive all repeat petitioners, referring to those who have come to Beijing for the same complaints, through video chats after Oct. 1, but it did not detail whether or not the court officials will refuse to speak to them if they, once again, go to the capital with their grievances.

In China, people can "petition" government authorities at various levels over disputes and grievances ranging from land grabs to power abuse. To make their voice better heard, many citizens travel from far and wide to the capital in the hope of speaking to the central authorities.

In fact the SPC has launched the video system earlier in May this year, since when the number of people coming to Beijing for petitions have greatly dropped, it said. The SPC has received 1,800 petition cases via video chats and finished 800 of them.

Currently 3,435 courts across the country have direct video connections with the SPC.

The local court officials will be present while the petitioners chat with SPC officials via video so that both the petitioners and the courts can have their opinions fully expressed, according to Qian Xiaochen, deputy head of the case-filing tribunal of the SPC.

The local court officials can also serve as an interpreter as many rural people's dialects are hard to understand, Qian said.

He believes that the local courts won't block the petitioners applications or interfere when they are talking. "It's not necessary, as the court decisions usually differentiate between different courts, and the petitioners will only find their way to Beijing again to complain if they are not satisfied via the video."

The chatting will be recorded, according to the SPC.