国内英语新闻:China Focus: Judiciary reports highlight justice being served in tangible way

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Two annual work reports unveiled by China's top court and top procuratorate have indicated that the country's judiciary authorities are doing their best to deliver justice fairly, promptly, and in a tangible way.

The reports on the work of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) were delivered Monday for deliberations at the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature.

A distinct feature of the reports was to let cases speak -- using typical cases to present the judicial agencies' work over the past year, which focuses on providing visible and tangible proof that justice is served in each and every case.

Dozens of cases were cited in the reports to elucidate Chinese judicial efforts in multiple areas such as protecting medical workers and juveniles as well as punishing those slandering others especially the country's martyrs and heroes.

In a high-profile case, Sun Wenbin, who killed a doctor in a Beijing hospital where his mother was treated, was given the death penalty in January last year for the crime of intentional homicide.

The killing in late 2019 shocked the country. Yang Wen, who was working in an emergency room, was stabbed to death by Sun, who claimed that he was unsatisfied with his mother's treatment.

Over the past year, a focus of Chinese courts' work was to create a sound environment where health and medical workers are respected so that they can feel assured and secure enough to focus on their work wholeheartedly, said Yu Maoyu, vice director of the SPC's general office, who was in charge of drafting the SPC report.

China has also taken measures to improve judicial protection of minors.

According to the SPP report, some 57,000 people were severely punished for sexual assaults on and maltreatment of minors, as well as child trafficking, in 2020.

The SPP report also introduced the update of a widely discussed case just before the NPC session, in which an internet celebrity was arrested for defaming military martyrs online.

In accordance with Amendment XI to the Criminal Law, which came into effect on March 1, 2021, the procuratorate in east China's Jiangsu Province approved the arrest of the suspect surnamed Qiu, who was known as Labixiaoqiu in his microblog.

Qiu's was the first reported criminal case citing the new amendment, which specifies crimes including the infringement of the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs.

To include the fresh case into the report has special meaning, said Ma Qi, deputy head of the SPP general office, adding that it would also boost public awareness on rule of law.