CCTV9英语新闻：Response to legal work reports

The legal work reports are a hot issue for NPC deputies and CPPCC members during each political season. They come from all walks of life and have different angles on the reports. CCTV's Han Peng speaks to some of them on their response to the reports.

 

"The country must protect the rights of lawyers. This is one of my key focuses in this year's legal work report. I myself am a lawyer, and let me raise a small example. In the past, when the court opened, defense lawyers had to go through security checks together with defendants before entering the court, while judges didn't have to. But now lawyers no longer have to. This small detail shows the changing spirit of the country's rule of law. This year's report shows the new direction of making sure lawyers can function equally and as a balance to the judges and prosecutors. This is very important in guaranteeing justice," CPPCC member Hou Xinyi said.

 

"The work report says over 95 percent of cases can now be put on record right after the plaintiff goes to court, and it also pledges to solve the current problem of the difficulty in enforcement of court's convictions over the next two or three years. These two changes are very important to building a real rule of law, and I, as a judge in a local court, will also work on these two issues," CPPCC member Wang Limin said.

 

"As an ancient Chinese judge said, I will not sentence a criminal to death until I exhaust all the reasons and provisions which might protect him. Yet, I still made wrongful convictions occassionally.  But the public is the other way around, hoping to see him executed as long as they think he committed crimes. I'm not an expert in legal issues, but I feel one essential spirit from the legal work report today. That is making the pursuit of truth and the respect for life the ultimate goal of China's justice system," CPPCC member Wang Donglin said.