Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the construction of a legal state and society has been a long-lasting mission of the Chinese as they pursue freedom, justice, and equality.
That's why many attached great importance to correcting wrongful convictions in the past as mistakes in convictions damaged the credibility of the legal system and seriously affected the normal life of victims. China’s prosecutorial, judicial, and public security systems have long been kept separate. So, there are no unified rules and standards regarding evidence. As a result, many problems have arisen.
"For instance, public security authorities wonder why courts do not make judgments after they have worked hard to arrest alleged criminals. But courts, after the trial, have to consider a lack of evidence. In other words, some evidence is defective. If left unchecked, this will lead to a breakdown in the judicial procedure," said Guo Weiqing, president and member of the Judicial Committee and senior judge of the Second Rank of Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, in an interview with the People's Daily.
As justice in the judicial system has been increasingly highlighted, more and more technological means are being applied to ensure that uniform rules and standards regarding evidence will be applied to different cases to help build chains of evidence. AI has been integrated into the judicial practices as the Shanghai High People's Court developed "206 System." With AI capabilities in graphic recognition, language understanding and intelligent speech recognition, this system facilitates case-handling personnel to collect fixed evidence, and verifies the evidence to avoid miscarriages of justice.
Systems like this will help legal personnel better fulfill their duties in a more efficient way and ensure that wrongful convictions such as the case of Nie Shubin won’t happen in the future.
Along with advancements in the judicial system, legislation has progressed significantly. Civil laws like the Marriage Law helped protect the rights of relatively discriminated groups like women, children and so on. And the Foreign Investment Law enacted this year establishes a system of high liberalization in trade and investment, representing the institutionalization of China's foreign investment and more access for foreign investors, which will better protect those who seek investments and business opportunities in China.
To summarize China's advancements in promoting the rule of law, Zhang Xifeng, associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law, said in the interview. "The greatest achievement made in China's legal system construction on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China is the fundamental change in national governance. The rule of law has won popular support in China, from top leader to ordinary people."
(Video produced by Han Xiaomeng, Shan Xin, Bao Han, Liang Peiyu, and Li Bowen; subtitles by Wang Yanan and Wang Xiangyu; story compiled by Han Xiaomeng).
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October 23, 2019
