China.org.cn | October 30, 2022
The Beijing News:
In July 2017, amendments to the civil and administrative procedure laws established the public-interest litigation procuratorial system. Some believe that this system has given new meaning to the "governance of China." How will the procuratorial organs, as representatives of public interest, perform this duty? Thank you.
Tong Jianming:
Thank you for your attention to this issue.
Exploring and establishing the system of public-interest litigation by the procuratorial organs was a major decision and arrangement made at the fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, and also an important measure in promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that "as representatives of the public interest, prosecutors shoulder important responsibilities ." Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the procuratorial organs, bearing in mind the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, actively and steadily promoted the in-depth development of public-interest litigation. Over the past five years, the procuratorial organs have handled more than 710,000 public-interest litigation cases, with an average of more than 140,000 each year, forming a unique "Chinese solution" for the judicial protection of public interest, which has also attracted extensive attention from the international community.
We have always adhered to the principle of serving the overall situation and providing justice for the people. The SPP has successively arranged special public interest litigation campaigns such as "ensuring the food safety of thousands of households" and "public interest litigation to safeguard a better life," to promote solutions of concern to the people in fields such as ecological environment, food and medicine safety, and workplace safety.
We insist on performing our duties in coordination with jointly protecting the public interest. The SPP clearly put forward the concept of "win-win and all-win," taking the realization of public interest goals before litigation as the best judicial status, and promoting the active performance of duties by administrative departments through consultation and pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions. In the past five years, 98% of procuratorial suggestions in administrative public-interest litigation have been effectively adopted to make rectifications before litigation; for those that the procuratorial suggestions could not be implemented, 35,000 lawsuits were filed, 99.7% of which were supported by the people's courts, and efforts were made to turn these cases into "rule of law examples."
We have earnestly implemented the legislative decisions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and continuously expanded our public-interest litigation efforts in new areas. To meet new demand for public interest protection, China has improved legislation concerning public-interest litigation over the past years. In 2017, China revised the Civil Procedure Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, allowing procuratorial organs to lodge public-interest lawsuits in four fields, including environmental and resource protection, food and drug safety, state-owned property protection, and transfer of the use rights of state-owned land. Since 2018, the NPC Standing Committee has revised and formulated relevant laws, adding eight new fields including the protection of the rights and interests of martyrs, the protection of minors, the protection of honor and reputation of military personnel, workplace safety, personal information protection, anti-monopoly, anti-telecommunication network fraud, and agricultural product quality and safety. Procuratorial organs at all levels have conscientiously performed their responsibilities conferred by law and strengthened judicial protection of public interests in these new areas. The proportion of cases handled in new fields has reached 20.7%.
Efforts to improve the public-interest litigation system were emphasized in the report to the 20th CPC National Congress. We will resolutely implement the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee, continue to explore new ways to better perform the procuratorial function of public-interest litigation, and help modernize China's governance system and capabilities. Thank you.