国内英语新闻：Senior official urges lawyers to protect legal rights of clients

BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official called on the country's lawyers to serve their clients wholeheartedly and be a guard for the legal rights and interests of their clients, at Saturday's opening of the Seventh National Lawyers Congress.

    The congress will last through October 27.

    He urged Chinese lawyers to strictly abide by the principle of "making facts as the base and law as the yardstick" and follow their code of conduct and disciplines.

    Lawyers "should take the safeguarding of social fairness and justice as the fundamental pursuit of value in their practice," said Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau and the secretary of the CPC Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (CPLAC).

    Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's lawyer system has been gradually improving, while the lawyers' number has kept on increasing and their role has become increasingly clear, according to the senior official.

    Zhou urged Chinese lawyers to give top priority to the cause of the Party, the interests of the people, and the Constitution and law, and be an adamantine constructor and guard for socialism with China's own characteristics.

    Chinese lawyers should become a promoter for social harmony, he said, noting that the All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA) should bring into full play of its role as a bridge and ligament between Chinese lawyers and the Party and the government.

    Present at the opening session were Meng Jianzhu, minister of public security, state councilor and deputy secretary of the CPLAC, Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court, and Cao Jianming, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

    According to official website of the ACLA, the congress is its highest governing body. China has some 140,000 lawyers in practice and over 14,000 law firms