On Oct 28, the China Law Society released the Annual Report on the Rule of Law in China (2024), available in a Chinese–English edition. This marks the 17th consecutive year that the report on China's rule of law development has been presented to both domestic and international audiences. The report highlights a series of historic achievements China made in advancing the rule of law in 2024, noting that political and legal reforms have continued to deepen and various institutional frameworks have become more mature and well-defined.
The report focuses on the improvements in supporting systems for the judicial accountability. The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has abolished unnecessary, inappropriate, and unreasonable assessments of procuratorates at all levels, particularly for those at the grassroots level. The SPP has ceased implementing the procuratorial evaluation index system, and instead placed greater emphasis on procuratorial practice management, case management, and quality management, guiding judicial officers in handling cases strictly in accordance with the law and upholding fairness and justice. Additionally, the SPP issued the Guidelines on the Comprehensive and Accurate Implementation of the Judicial Accountability System by People's Procuratorates and revised the Regulations on Judicial Accountability of the People's Procuratorates.
According to the report, in regulating the exercise of law enforcement and judicial powers, the SPP has formulated specialized guidelines on supervising administrative violations and facilitating the transference between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice in accordance with the law. In collaboration with the Ministry of Public Security, it issued norms for the work of investigation supervision and coordination offices. Procuratorial organs exercised oversight over investigative authorities, leading to the filing of 28,000 cases. Furthermore, the SPP released the Guidelines on Strengthening Procuratorial Technology Use in Procuratorial Work in the New Era, enhancing the quality and efficiency of procuratorial practice and case handling. Over 680 legal supervision big data models have been developed and applied, covering all areas of procuratorial work.
Focusing on improving the rules and procedures for litigation systems, the SPP has been studying stricter standards for non-arrest and non-prosecution decisions. In collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, it has advanced pilot projects to ensure full coverage of lawyer defense during the review and prosecution stage. The SPP has been actively promoting legislative efforts for procuratorial public interest litigation, aiming to clarify such provisions in laws related to mineral resources, cultural relics protection, and rural collective economic organizations, the report said.
While enhancing efforts in promoting the rule of law for social stability, the SPP has improved the initiative that ensures "responding to all public complaints and reports". Under this initiative, the seven-day procedural response rate and the three-month case handling progress response rate of procuratorates nationwide reached 99.8 percent and 99.4 percent respectively.
To support high-quality development through an enhanced institutional framework, the SPP directed local procuratorates to strengthen oversight and address outstanding issues such as illegal cross-jurisdictional law enforcement and profit-driven law enforcement and administration of justice. It has also strengthened the mechanism for procuratorial stationing at the China Securities Regulatory Commission and enhanced coordination between financial regulatory law enforcement and administration of justice.
The report reveals that in 2024, procuratorial organs nationwide handled nearly 4.1 million cases, a decrease of 3.6 percent compared to the previous year. Among these, the SPP handled 8,980 cases, marking a 9.4 percent increase year-on-year.
