China's top court to select 10 major cases from 2017

China's top court announced on Thursday that it will select 10 significant cases, out of 20 proposed options, that influenced the country in 2017.

The selection process and the 20 candidate cases have been published on the website of the Supreme People's Court, according to a statement from the top court. 

The activity, jointly held with China Central Television, will end on Wednesday, and the result will be disclosed at the beginning of next month, it added.

The 20 proposed cases include several high-profile cases that generated heated public discussion last year, "and the judgments showed the justice and legal knowledge behind the cases deserved further study," said Shen Deyong, vice-president of the top court.

One such case involved Chen Wenhui, 22, a ringleader of a telecom fraud gang who was blamed for the death of a promising young student Xu Yuyu in Shandong province and sentenced to life in prison in July.

The gang defrauded victims of more than 560,000 yuan ($83,000) in total from November 2015 to August 2016. More than 23,000 calls were made in which scammers posed as educational, financial or real estate officials.

The case garnered widespread attention in August 2016 when Xu, an 18-year-old college-bound student from Linyi, Shandong, died after suffering a cardiac arrest after being conned out of 9,900 yuan she had saved for her college tuition.

The case urged Chinese judicial authorities to strengthen measures against telecom fraud, while in June 2017, the top court issued a guideline to provide heavier punishments for those illegally using others' private data, the statement said.

Another case in Shandong also stirred public debate. In June 2017, the Provincial High People's Court cut the life sentence given to Yu Huan, who was convicted of intentional injury, to five years after he appealed on the basis of self-defense.

Yu, 22, was sentenced to life in February last year by a court in the province's Liaocheng city, after he stabbed four debt collectors with a knife, killing one.

Yu appealed to the higher court, saying he acted in self-defense and to protect his mother.

"Yu's case became the hottest last year, and details were forwarded millions of times online," the statement said. "It stimulated the public to learn about Chinese law, and increased legal supervision from residents."

It's the third time that the top court has held the selection, "as we want to push forward the nation's building of the rule of law and explain our laws and work to the public through these individual cases," Shen said.

"I hope the selected cases can urge judges to be more professional when hearing disputes, and can regulate our trials and enhance public legal awareness," he added.