Legal experts said on Tuesday that a Chinese suspect who will stand trial in Japan after being accused of killing a Chinese woman last year is unlikely to be returned to China, but the victim’s mother could file a civil lawsuit in China to demand compensation if the man is convicted.

Jiang Ge, 24, a graduate student from Qingdao, Shandong province, who was studying in Japan was found dead with multiple stab wounds in the corridor of her Tokyo apartment on Nov 3 last year.

Japanese police said in late November that they had arrested a suspect, Chen Shifeng, who is the ex-boyfriend of Jiang’s roommate Liu Xin. Chen was charged with murder in December.

The case will be publicly heard in Tokyo on Dec 11, and is expected to last five days.

Although China has made no request for Chen’s return, the topic has been widely discussed on social media.

Huang Feng, a law professor specializing in international criminal law and international legal cooperation at Beijing Normal University, said there is little chance Chen will be extradited from Japan.

“Chinese judicial authorities can handle the case only when the suspect is controlled by us, but now he isn’t,” he said. “Meanwhile, Japan will refuse any request from China to return Chen, because the case is going to be tried. The crime happened in Japan, so it will be better to handle it in that country. It’s more convenient for Japanese police to investigate.”

There is no extradition treaty between the two countries, he added.

Ruan Chuansheng, a criminal lawyer who studied international judicial cooperation in Shanghai, agreed. Based on his past research, when a non-Japanese person is involved in a crime in Japan, the country will not repatriate the person it is investigating, regardless what kind of visa is carried, Ruan said.

“Solving the case is the priority,” he said.

If extradition is pursued, China would normally make the request, he added. “But so far it hasn’t done that, so I don’t think Chen’s case will be transferred.”

Both legal professionals said the victim’s family could seek compensation by filing a civil lawsuit against Chen in a Chinese court if he is convicted.

The victim’s mother, Jiang Qiulian, has petitioned the Japanese government for Chen to receive the death penalty should he be found guilty.

“No matter whether Chen is in China or not, the mother has the right to appeal to a Chinese court, such as one in Qingdao, for compensation under the Civil Procedure Law,” Ruan said.

He added that courts usually will not accept such a case until a defendant has been convicted and sentenced. Huang said a conviction would strongly support a civil lawsuit against a killer, who may or may not have the resources to pay.

While courts do not force family members to pay compensation for the crimes of adult relatives, payment arrangements may be made privately, outside the court system, by family members.

In seeking a death penalty, the victim’s mother, Jiang Qiulian, who is currently in Japan, held four activities to drum up support, gathering signatures in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district over the weekend. An online petition to collect signatures is still ongoing, according to the mother’s micro blog on Thursday, but it is set to end on Nov 30.

Teachers’ professional title evaluation will be delegated directly to higher education institutions, and morality will be the primary consideration, according to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS).

The idea was put forward in the Provisional Measures on the Supervision and Management of Professional Title Evaluation of Higher Education Institutions released on Monday by the two ministries.

The measures define the role of colleges and universities as the major body of professional title evaluation, while the two ministries as the supervision and management body.

Colleges and universities should formulate their own assessment methods and operational plans for the evaluation based on their development goals and positioning, according to the announcement. The responsibility, standards and procedures should be clarified in their methods.

Colleges and universities should report the evaluation results of the last year to the departments in charge by March 31 each year. The documents should be properly kept for at least 10 years to ensure that the entire review process can be traced back.

Random spot checks will be regularly carried out. Based on the results of the spot checks and public opinion, targeted cases will be inspected.

In professional title evaluation, applicant teachers found to be deceptive or having academic misconduct will be dealt with according to relevant rules.

Dishonest teachers who passed the evaluation will have their appraisal results repealed and review experts who violated the discipline will be disqualified from accreditation and listed in the “black list”, according to the measures.

The Central Military Commission (CMC) has released a regulation to standardize the benefits for military officials at or above corps level, including offices, housing, cars and medical services.

The regulation also requires such officials to have the appropriate number of staff as stipulated, showing the CMC’s determination to strict military governance, it said.

The regulation is aimed at fully implementing the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the CPC’s eight-point code on frugality issued five years ago, it said.

It will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

A China Southern Airlines aircraft was diverted to land in central China tonight after its fire alarm in the cargo hold was triggered on Monday night.

Flight CZ6406 from Nanjing in neighboring Jiangsu Province to Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had to land in Changsha in central Hunan Province at 9:56pm.

One passenger was hurt when evacuating from the emergency slide, while the other 150 passengers were “safe,” the Guangzhou-based airline said.

The crew found the alarm light for the cargo hold was turned on after the aircraft took off from Nanjing Lukou International Airport at 7:50pm, the airline said. The crew then carried out the emergency evacuation according to rules, the carrier said.

No flame was found in the hold after the landing, and the cause of the incident is still under investigation, it said in a statement.

The airline said it will send another aircraft to fly the passengers to their destination.

According to a video footage taken by a witness on the tarmac, passengers were screaming during the evacuation.

More new international air routes linking China with economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative will be opened in the winter and spring aviation season, an official at the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Monday.

Some 127 new international routes have opened during the 2017-18 season, which runs from Oct 29 to March 24.

Fourteen of the routes are for freight; 113 are for passengers. “The rapid increase of new international routes linking China with countries and regions involved in the initiative will continue in the new season,” Yu Biao, deputy director of the administration’s transport department, said at a news conference.

Domestic airlines have already opened 108 new international routes, mostly in Western Europe, Australia, Russia and Southeast Asia. Of those, 95 link with regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative – mostly in Central Europe, Central Asia, South Asia and the South Pacific.

Meanwhile, international airlines have opened 19 new international routes, mostly in Southeast Asia. Eighteen of those link economies involved in the initiative.

In the new season, 18,338 international flights will be conducted weekly by 31 domestic airlines and 134 international ones. The domestic carriers will link China with 155 cities in 58 countries and regions. International carriers will link China with 135 cities abroad.

In the previous aviation season, more than 100 new international routes opened to economies involved in the initiative. As of May, there were direct flights linking China with 43 of those economies, with about 4,200 flights weekly.

The punctuality of flights in October was the best since May, 2009, with 83 percent on time.

Weather is the main reason for timetable disruptions, accounting for 48 percent of delays, said Tian Zhencai, deputy director of the administration’s operations and monitoring center.