Reformers aim to curb meddling with courts

Leading Group approves regulation to expose officials who interfere with work of judiciary

China's top-level reformers unveiled plans to prevent officials from interfering with the judicial process, in the latest step to boost the rule of law.

Officials who interfere in court cases will be recorded, their names will be made public and they will be held accountable, according to a regulation approved at a Friday meeting of the Leading Group for Overall Reform of the CPC Central Committee.

The group, led by President and Party chief Xi Jinping, agreed at the meeting that interference with the judiciary should be taken into account in evaluating the performance of officials.

Some officials around the country have been criticized by the public for interfering in cases in which local governing bodies infringed the lawful rights or interests of ordinary citizens.

The initiative to build a firewall between the judiciary and government officials was first proposed as part of a legal reform plan unveiled by the CPC Central Committee in November.

Zhu Lijia, professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said Friday's decision "marks a critical step" for better ensuring the independence of the judiciary.

The requirement "mirrors the government's determination in eliminating such interference in real and concrete terms", Zhu said.

The new mechanism requires officials at various levels not to "set foot in the treatment of specific cases", and no interference is allowed in the work of judicial organs, the Leading Group decided on Friday.

Building an anti-intervention mechanism is "of institutional significance for promoting fair jurisprudence and curbing corruption", and is an important measure for reforms, the group said.

The Leading Group has supported Shanghai's pilot plan to toughen oversight of the business activities of officials' relatives, and Beijing has plans to perfect the pilot plan and expand such scrutiny across the country.

The CPC Central Committee will "work on perfecting the regulations" dealing with the involvement of family members, such as the spouses or children of officials, in commercial concerns or taking positions in the government or social organizations, the group said.

Spouses and children involved in irregular and even illegal businesses are not stand-alone cases, analysts said, and the phenomenon has been seen in the latest revelations by China's top disciplinary watchdog in a range of serious corruption cases.

Serious problems involving officials' relatives in Shanghai who grabbed lucrative benefits were exposed and publicly excoriated in October after the central government's top watchdog dispatched an inspection group to oversee the municipality.

To tackle the problems, Shanghai's municipal Party committee set about formulating provisions that would further regulate business involvement, according to a January release on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Shanghai will conduct a focused review to eliminate the phenomenon - for example, by examining real estate purchases by officials and their relatives.

The Leading Group said on Friday that Shanghai's determination aligns with the Party's pursuit of tighter discipline, and that the key to curb such problems is to implement countermeasures "in real and concrete terms" and "to make the rules really work".

Departments of the CPC Central Committee are required to "give support, track the progress, summarize experiences" and expand the pilot to achieve a comprehensive implementation over time.

Zhan Zhongle, a law professor at Peking University, said the disciplinary curbs on the relatives serves as "a component of China's effort to institutionalize its anti-corruption architecture". It is an incremental policy design that "ensures feasibility with an eye toward the long-term future", Zhan said.

After the Party perfects the disciplinary restraints over officials and their relatives, "the next step is to see the country's top legislature draft laws to further curb such problems", Zhan said.