Tag Archives: China

Official investigators in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province on Thursday evening said a hospital had been negligent in a case that led to the suicide of a pregnant woman. The investigation panel, composed of officials with the health and public securi… read more

Shanghai will begin selecting new judges from the ranks of its judge assistants－a position created five years ago as part of the city’s wide-ranging judicial reform.

Newly appointed judge assistants take their oath as they assume their posts in Shanghai. [Photo/China Daily]

Up to 160 judge assistants, who serve in the city’s district and intermediate courts, will be promoted and assume new roles by the end of the year, the Shanghai High People’s Court announced.

Nearly 300 candidates took written tests on Sept 2 and will go through simulated court hearings and qualification tests in mid-September.

“We believe the size of the talent pool is big enough, and that the people are ready in terms of professional capability and maturity,” said Wei Jianping, a senior official at the high court.

The average work experience of the candidates is 6.6 years.

The role of judge assistant was created by the Supreme People’s Court in 2012 as part of its effort to streamline personnel, increase efficiency and reduce the workload of judges.

Unlike court clerks, who mainly handle administrative tasks such as filing and taking notes, judge assistants preview case files, coordinate mediation hearings and handle the exchange of evidence, which were all previously a judge’s responsibility.

“When court assistants shoulder the time-consuming tasks, such as pretrial mediation, judges can be more focused on hearing cases,” said Zhang Xiaoli, director of the general political department of the court.

When the reform was rolled out, judges had to reapply for their jobs, with only the best qualified chosen. Others were reassigned as judge assistants, many of whom are law graduates and experienced court clerks.

Shanghai currently has 1,939 judge assistants assigned to help 1,108 judges.

The first round of promotions marks an important step, said Ye Qing, director of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences’s Law Institute.

“Chinese courts are moving forward in deepening personnel management reforms and building a more elite team of judges to respond to people’s high expectations of fairness and justice,” he said.

Candidates with spouses who are lawyers or serve the court in other capacities can only become judges if their spouses leave their positions, a measure designed to protect the courts’ impartiality, Zhang said.

Guo Weiqing, vice-president of the high court, said that from now on all the judges in the district courts will be selected from the pool of judge assistants, and those for the city’s intermediate courts and high court will be selected from the pool of judges from district courts.

The selection of judges from the judge assistant pool will be carried out once a year, he said.

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The State Council, China’s cabinet, released revised regulations on religious affairs on Thursday. The revisions protect freedom of religious belief, stipulating provision of public services for religious groups, schools and venues. Religious communit… read more

Journalists from home and abroad are invited to cover the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), it was announced Thursday. Applications for covering the congress can be submitted between Sept. 8 and 25, according to an… read more

As the number of Chinese tourists to Antarctica soared to the No 2 ranking, experts urged the country to speed up legislation on Antarctic travel to protect the environment there as well as tourists’ safety and interests.

Last year, 5,286 Chinese tourists visited the frozen continent, amounting to 12 percent of worldwide visitors there, second only to the United States with 14,566 tourists, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

Fewer than 800 Chinese tourists made the trip in 2010, when China was ranked behind countries such as Australia, Canada and Germany in visitor numbers.

“The size of the market for Antarctic tourism grew dramatically with people’s rising interest in natural wonders, but the legislation in this respect lags behind,” said Qin Weijia, director of the China Arctic and Antarctic Administration.

He said the number of Chinese tourists to Antarctica last year alone was equal to the total visits by team members participating in the country’s expeditions to the Antarctic since 1984.

“Among the 29 countries that are consultative parties of the Antarctic Treaty, China, together with India, Poland and Ecuador, are the only four that have not yet made laws to specify their citizens’ behavior and protect their safety when they travel to the most remote place on Earth,” he said.

Yang Huigen, director of the Polar Research Institute of China, said, “The legislation may also put what President Xi Jinping said into practice — to pursue a community of shared future for mankind and to be a responsible great power.”

In April, Lin Shanqing, deputy director of the State Oceanic Administration, told Xinhua News Agency that the country’s legislative body had started to pay attention to the legislation on issues regarding traveling to Antarctica.

Ponant, a French cruise company, started to offer polar excursions to Chinese three years ago. Prices range from $400 to $1,250 per person per night based on different cabins for a journey ranging from 11 to 16 days.

Jean-Philippe Lemaire, a captain of a Ponant cruise liner, said the staff vacuum all the tourists’ garments before they go on shore each time to minimize dust pollution.

But Wang Wenlong from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, who has taken the cruises to both poles, said tourists still need guidance on dos and don’ts and the corresponding legal liability and punishment.

“We had plenty of opportunities to encounter a large number of rarely seen animals but didn’t have rules of how to interact with them without interrupting them,” Wang, 41, said.

The legislation will come in handy in case of accidents or trouble happening to Chinese tourists, Qin said.

“It may stipulate a fixed coordinating mechanism after an accident occurs and give clear requirements regarding the purchase of travel insurance,” he said.

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