Thecover.cn:

In recent years, public interest litigation has drawn wide attention from the public. What progress has been made since procuratorial organs started the work of public interest litigation on a full scale in 2017? What features does the mechanism have? Thank you.

Tong Jianming:

Thank you for your questions. They will be answered by Mr. Hu Weilie, head of the SPP's Eighth Procuratorial Office, which is in charge of public interest litigation.

Hu Weilie:

I would like to express my appreciation to you and all the friends from the media who have continued giving attention and support to the procuratorial organs' work of public interest litigation.

Public interest litigation is indeed a brand new procuratorial function. It is a major judicial reform measure decided and planned by the Party Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping after the 18th CPC National Congress. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that procurators shoulder important responsibilities as representatives of the public interest and that Chinese procuratorial organs are important players in protecting the national and public interest. In October 2014, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Party Central Committee proposed exploring a litigation system for filing public interest lawsuits by procuratorial organs, launching the reform for filing public interest litigation. Later, with the authorization of the NPC Standing Committee, the SPP launched a two-year pilot program for public interest litigation in several regions and has made remarkable progress. On July 1, 2017, the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Procedure Law revised at the 28th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC officially went into effect, establishing the mechanism for procuratorial organs to file public interest lawsuits.

During the past five years, procuratorial organs have followed a people-centered approach, placed public interest protection at the core, and executed their duties of legal supervision in the form of litigation. The number of public interest lawsuits filed by prosecutors has increased steadily, and the quality and efficiency of handling cases have improved. Prosecutors have filed over 670,000 public interest litigation cases. As a result, about 7.86 million mu (about 524,000 hectares) of damaged farmlands, forests, wetlands, and grasslands have been restored, over 45.84 million metric tonnes of garbage and solid waste recycled or cleared, and 9.35 billion yuan (about $1.38 billion) recovered for ecological restoration and environmental improvement. Also, under the watch of procuratorial organs, approximately 1.82 million kg of counterfeit and substandard food and 60,000 kg of counterfeit and smuggled drugs have been investigated, tackled, and recalled. Meanwhile, state assets, national rights and interests worth about 15.95 billion yuan have been protected and recovered. About 33.72 billion yuan of transferring fees of state-owned land use rights has been retrieved, and 58,000 mu (about 3867 hectares) of illegally appropriated state-owned land has been recalled.

Based on developments over the past five years, the procuratorial public interest litigation system has demonstrated the fundamental characteristic of turning the Party's leadership and the advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics into governance efficacy. In practice, the system has shown the following specific characteristics: First, a people-centered approach has been adopted and thorny issues concerning livelihoods have been addressed. The SPP has successively launched specialized programs, including those under the themes of "safeguarding the food safety of households," "protecting living standards with public interest litigation" and "doing practical work and solving long-standing thorny issues," with a focus on issues close to people's everyday lives, such as ecology and the environment, workplace safety, and food and drug safety. Second, efforts have been made to improve legislation and promote the development of the rule of law. Provisions for procuratorial public interest litigation have been successively added to the Civil Procedure Law, Administrative Procedure Law, Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates, Procurators Law, Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs, Law on the Protection of Minors, Law on Workplace Safety, Law on the Protection of Status, Rights and Interests of Military Personnel, Personal Information Protection Law, and Anti-monopoly Law, among other laws. The Supreme People's Court and the SPP issued judicial interpretations; the SPP formulated rules for handling cases; and the standing committees of local people's congresses adopted special decisions to strengthen public interest litigation. The system of laws and regulations for procuratorial public interest litigation in China has been continuously enriched. Third, coordinated efforts have been taken to protect public interest and the advantages of the system were demonstrated. During the handling of cases, the procuratorial organs have adopted a tiered approach, including consultation, pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions and litigation, to urge administrative organs to fully perform their duties in accordance with the law, so as to promote the building of a law-based government. At the same time, coordination with administrative organs has been strengthened to create strong synergy for the protection of public interest. Fourth, supporting mechanisms have been improved to raise the quality and efficiency of protection. For example, improving the trans-regional coordination mechanism and promoting systematic governance of harm to public interest through integrated case handling, using satellite remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles, big data, rapid detection and other technologies to strengthen investigation guarantees, and promoting pre-litigation roundtables, hearings and other methods to strengthen public participation. All of these measures have greatly raised the quality, efficiency and credibility of the handling of public interest litigation cases. Thank you.