The number of petitions and complaints to procuratorial agencies across China in the first 10 months last year has dropped by 9.8 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Gong Ming, a senior prosecutor with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), said on Friday that numbers of extreme cases, repeated petitions and petitions that involve mass participation have also decreased, while the involvement of lawyers in petitions is increasing.

Gong said this shows that more members of the public are willing to resort to the law rather than extralegal means in solving their grievances.

Procuratorial authorities at the provincial level have established systems to integrate petitions into judicial proceedings, rectify wrongful decisions and provide judicial assistance in such cases.

Prosecutors have also accepted over 10,000 petition cases via online video in 2016, which could help people make their voices heard, according to Gong.

The State Council on Friday announced the appointment and removal of several leading officials.

Ding Xuedong was appointed State Council deputy secretary-general in place of Xiao Jie.

Wang Shuangquan was named vice justice minister, and Tang Jun has replaced Liu Yuting as deputy head of China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Guo Shuqing was appointed chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission. Shang Fulin no longer holds the post.

Chen Gang was nominated deputy director of the Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Committee under the State Council.

Wang Kun was named deputy head of China Geological Survey, and Luo Liming was removed from the post of deputy director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), delivers a report on the work of the CPPCC National Committee’s Standing Committee at the fifth session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 3, 2017. The fifth session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee opened in Beijing on March 3. [Photo/Xinhua]

China’s top political advisory body started its annual session Friday in Beijing, ushering in a political high season that will continue with the opening of the country’s top legislature Sunday.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, delivered a work report to more than 2,000 political advisors who gathered to discuss major political, economic and social issues in the world’s most populous nation and second-largest economy.

Top Communist Party of China and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the opening meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

Zhao works on Bagua Hill in Jilin province. [Photo/China Daily]

After spending almost half his life chopping down trees in Jilin province, Zhao Xihai decided it was time to make a change.

In 1989, the former logger and explosives worker formulated a plan to mitigate some of the damage he had done to the environment over the years – he would plant 100,000 trees before turning 70.

In the first spring following his retirement, Zhao bought 46,000 seedlings and set about planting them on a barren tract of land on Bagua Hill, 3 kilometers away from his home.

He set himself the goal of planting 1,000 seedlings per day, waking at 4 am each morning to walk to the hill, armed only with a shovel and some painkillers for his chronic stomach problems.

Every day for 46 days, come rain or shine, Zhao went to the hill to plant more trees, eating only small bites of snacks for sustenance and drinking from nearby streams.

He succeeded in completing his task in the time allocated, despite passing out from hunger and exhaustion one rainy day and having to be carried home by a neighbor.

Once the first 46,000 seedlings had been planted, Zhao continued with his task – albeit at a slower pace.

He persisted even after having a blood clot on the brain in 2004, which left him walking with a stick, telling his son: “I will not stop planting as long as I can move.”

By 2007, Zhao had achieved his goal of planting 100,000 trees, but he did not stop there. Joined by his 36-year-old son Zhao Jingchun, who had recently been laid off, he set himself a new mission – to plant 1 million trees, including a number of rare or unusual species.

Within four years, the pair had managed to cultivate 750,000 seedlings, inspiring Zhao Xihai to present his son with a flag honoring his dedication and symbolizing the passing of responsibility to the younger generation.

In March last year, Zhao Xihai was hospitalized after his blood clot returned. He lost the ability to talk and now requires 24-hour care.

His son has vowed to continue his legacy, however, and is on schedule to plant his 1 millionth tree this year, according to Jilin’s Hongshi Bureau of Forestry.

Some have questioned why Zhao Jingchun continues to plant trees when he has no income and a 13-year-old son to support. The entire family is also reliant on Zhao Xihai’s pension.

“Planting trees will be beneficial for generations to come, therefore it is worth all the hardships – that’s what my father would say,” he said.

As the number of child sexual abuse cases has risen in recent years, some deputies to the National People’s Congress and various experts held a seminar on Thursday ahead of China’s annual two political sessions to call for immediate steps to stop the scourge.

The deputies proposed solutions including making sexual abuse awareness education compulsory in schools, and establishing a proper custody system for minors.

They said children should be taught about what constitutes a “safe touch” and know it is safe to tell teachers or other staff about abuse.

At the seminar, a survey report on child sexual abuse cases in 2016 was released by Girls’ Protecting, a charity fund initiated by dozens of female journalists in 2013.

The survey found that 433 cases of sexual abuse involving children under 14 were publicly reported in 2016, equating to an average of 1.21 cases a day, an increase of 30 percent year on year.

Wang Xuemei, co-founder of Girls’ Protecting, said the number of reported child sexual abuse cases significantly increased in the past three years, demonstrating it had become quite an acute social issue drawing more attention from society and the media.

However, many cases still go unreported because of the shame that comes with the act and complexity of the cases.

The survey report showed that of 778 victims whose cases were made public in 2016, 719 were girls, making up 92.42 percent, with a small number of boys. The perpetrators were mostly men.

“These figures awaken us to the gravity of the issue,” said Sun Xiaomei, an NPC deputy and a professor at China Women’s University. “The focus should be placed on building a protection net through coordinated efforts from families, schools and society.”

Li Yifei, an NPC deputy and principal of a middle school in Inner Mongolia, stressed the problem should be solved by a combination of law, education, moral and culture building.

According to the survey, in 2016, the youngest victim was aged less than 2, and 125 were under 7.

Girls’ Protecting pointed that children who are sexually molested are mainly aged between 12 and 14, reinforcing the fact that underage girls are easy targets of sexual abuse and there is a severe lack of awareness education for them.

The survey found more cases occurring in rural areas than in cities.

“Sexual abuse is a special topic when it comes to children’s protection,” said Tong Xiaojun, dean of the Institute of Children Studies at China Youth University of Political Studies. “There is currently no system in place to address the issue, certainly not in rural areas.”

He added that whether left-behind children in rural areas are more prone to sexual abuse is yet to be determined.

Lan Chuntao, an NPC deputy and a teacher at a high school in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said: “The government should boost investment in rural areas. Moreover, I hope rural children can live with their parents who work in cities, thus reducing their vulnerabilities to sexual abuse.”

A more shocking fact revealed by the report is that offenders are largely people close to victims, with teachers making up 29.33 percent, neighbors 24.33 percent, relatives and friends 12 percent, family members 10 percent.

Grils’ Protecting has provided sexual abuse awareness education to more than 1,400,000 children along with more than 400,000 parents in 28 provinces in China by the end of last year.