Ying Yong, Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), delivers a report on administrative prosecution to the 12th session of the 14th National People's Congress Standing Committee on Nov 5.
Ying Yong, Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), delivered a report on administrative prosecution work to the 12th session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on Nov 5.
Ying said that administrative prosecution is an important statutory duty of the people's procuratorates, adding that procuratorial agencies throughout China have consciously worked to serve the overall development of the country, uphold people's justice and act for the rule of law by handling each case with high quality and efficiency.
They strictly fulfill their duties of administrative prosecution, and comprehensively promote both fair justice and lawful administration as well as law-based governance, contributing to the development of the rule of law in all respects, he said.
Ying noted that, according to the stipulations of the Constitution and the law, administrative prosecution mainly involves legal supervision over administrative litigation. It also requires procuratorial authorities to issue procuratorial recommendations to urge correction when they find administrative authorities violate or fail to exercise their powers according to the law during legal supervision, and to provide procuratorial opinions to administrative authorities on cases requiring administrative penalties after the people's procuratorates decide not to prosecute, he said.
With the deepening of comprehensive rule of law since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), administrative prosecution work has entered a fast lane of development, he said, and on the new journey in the new era, administrative prosecution efforts have made new progress.
From 2019 to 2023, procuratorial organs supervised the adjudication of 479,000 administrative cases, and from January to September of this year, the number was 159,000, Ying said, adding that efforts have been made to strengthen supervision over the verdicts of administrative cases, trials and enforcement to promote justice.
When prosecutors identified errors in rulings, they either lodged a protest directly or recommended retrials. During January 2019 to September 2024, prosecutors have raised such protests or recommendations in 2,781 cases, with the SPP filing protests in 59 cases. A total of 54,000 procuratorial recommendations were made for improper case filing by courts or errors in applying trial procedures, and 101,000 for illegal court enforcement, while 51,000 procuratorial recommendations were made for administrative authorities failing to comply with court judgments, Ying said.
He noted that procuratorial organs throughout the country carried out supervision over administrative violations in accordance with the law, and 74,000 procuratorial recommendations were made for administrative actions found to have prominent problems in fact identification, application of the law, and other aspects when they perform their legal supervision duties
Pilot projects for supervision over compulsory isolation for drug rehabilitation were carried out extensively, Ying said, and efforts were made to promote transference between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice.
Since 2023, administrative authorities have been lawfully urged to transfer 8,272 cases involving suspected crimes. From July 2017 to September of this year, procuratorial organs made 778,000 suggestions regarding administrative authorities' illegal exercise or non-exercise of powers leading to infringement of national or public interests. Among them, when administrative authorities still failed to perform their duties according to the law, procuratorial organs filed lawsuits with the courts in 5,931 cases.
Ying pointed out that procuratorial organs nationwide have made proactive efforts to integrate into China's overall development and promote high-quality growth.
Special campaigns such as "procuratorial protection of enterprises" were carried out to strengthen judicial protection of intellectual property rights and foster a business environment governed by a sound legal framework, he said.
Ying emphasized that judicial protection of environmental resources has been strengthened, administrative supervision in areas such as penalties for environmental pollution has been enhanced, and the administrative supervision and law enforcement coordination mechanisms were established jointly with the Ministry of Natural Resources.
He highlighted efforts of the procuratorial organs nationwide in actively participating in social governance, saying that they have taken multiple measures to reduce the occurrences of similar cases from the source.
Special campaigns such as "procuratorial protection of people's livelihoods" were carried out to ensure every complaint from the public was responded to, promote the substantive resolution of administrative disputes and protect the legitimate rights and interests of specific groups in accordance with the law, and make consistent efforts to ensure that procuratorial work serves the people, he added.
Ying emphasized efforts to strengthen the political and professional development of prosecutors at the grassroots level and to improve regulations on administrative supervision, and said that the SPP has enhanced cooperation and coordination with law enforcement and judicial authorities such as the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Justice. The provincial-level government-procuratorate linkage mechanism has been set up in six provinces, he added.
Ying also pointed out the problems that still remain in administrative prosecution work, highlighting the insufficient fulfillment of functional roles, lack of coordination in performance of duties, the need for further improvement in relevant collaborative mechanisms, and the urgency to strengthen team building.
Procuratorial organs will focus on strengthening political orientation, upholding the absolute leadership of the Party over procuratorial work, enhancing the performance of administrative supervision, deepening reform in administrative supervision, and promoting strict law enforcement and justice, he said.
They will also make efforts to effectively enhance the professional capabilities of prosecutors, and better safeguard judicial justice and promote the building of a law-based government, he added.
Ying suggested that, in deepening the reform of the administrative litigation system and improving the national enforcement system, further research should be conducted into legal application in issues such as the statutory period for administrative litigation, and further efforts should be made to make clear the scope, procedures and measures of legal supervision by procuratorial organs.
