The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) recently jointly issued a guideline on strengthening the procuratorial work involving overseas Chinese in the new era.
In recent years, under the joint guidance of the SPP and the ACFROC, procuratorial authorities of 17 provincial-level regions, including Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian, have issued documents in collaboration with their respective federations of returned overseas Chinese to standardize the performance of procuratorial functions in accordance with the law and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese.
The newly released guideline is shaped based on the innovative practices of cooperation between procuratorates and federations of returned overseas Chinese in various regions, aiming to propose more universally-applicable and practical mechanisms.
The guideline consists of 20 articles, providing guidance on continuous strengthening of cooperation between procuratorates and federations of returned overseas Chinese from five aspects: fully understanding the significance of strengthening procuratorial work involving overseas Chinese in the new era; continuously improving the level of lawfully safeguarding the rights and interests of overseas Chinese; equally protecting the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises involving overseas Chinese in accordance with the law to create a law-based business environment; leveraging the advantages of cooperation between procuratorates and federations of returned overseas Chinese to provide higher quality and more efficient legal services; and strengthening organizational support to enhance the collaborative capabilities of work involving overseas Chinese.
The guideline emphasizes the need to implement laws and policies serving the private economy and actively carry out the special campaign of "Procuratorial Protection of Enterprises". It calls for lawful prosecution of crimes that infringe upon the interests of enterprises and entrepreneurs involving overseas Chinese. When handling criminal cases involving such enterprises, efforts should be made to prevent and correct the use of criminal means to intervene in economic disputes.
The guideline specifies that procuratorial authorities and returned overseas Chinese federations should establish and improve the system of joint meetings, and explore the mechanisms for information sharing, exchanges, cooperation, joint research and training between them. They should collectively strengthen communication with returned overseas Chinese deputies to the people’s congresses, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who are involved with overseas Chinese affairs, experts, scholars, and other relevant parties, widely soliciting their opinions and suggestions.
In terms of regular liaison mechanisms between procuratorates and returned overseas Chinese federations, the guideline introduces various innovations, suggesting that procuratorates in regions with a high number of cases involving overseas Chinese can explore the establishment of special task force to handle such cases. In communities where returned overseas Chinese federations and returned overseas Chinese and their families are concentrated, special reception windows, liaison stations, and workspaces should be established in key enterprises involving overseas Chinese, as well as in areas with overseas Chinese investments such as industrial parks, incubation bases, and entrepreneurial zones, to focus on coordinating and resolving difficult issues and major disputes involving overseas Chinese.
Taking the release of the guideline as an opportunity, the SPP has also issued five typical cases concerning protecting the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese in accordance with the law, covering key areas of concern of the overseas Chinese community, such as protecting minors, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, and cultural relic preservation. These cases demonstrate the new achievements of procuratorial authorities in comprehensively fulfilling their duties and protecting the rights and interests of overseas Chinese through hearing reviews and procuratorial recommendations.
