China's courts to continue competence-centered judge selection reform

BEIJING - Chinese courts will continue their judge selection reform aimed at improving the professional competence of the bench, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Friday.

Nearly 370 SPC judges, including Chief Justice Zhou Qiang, took the oath of office on July 3, 2017 to be re-elected as judges under the judicial reform.

By the end of June 2017, courts across the country had selected more than 120,000 competent judges.

Previously, China's judicial selection and management system was based on the public servant management system, which did not suit the profession well.

Improvement has been seen in the courts since judge selection reform started, said Xu Jiaxin, head of the SPC political department.

Judges of the SPC dealt with 59.8 cases on average in the second half of 2017, up 126.5 percent compared with the first half of last year, according to Xu.

The courts will continue to select more competent judges, improve the judge assessment system while focusing on their professional ability and performance, and establish a system to eliminate unqualified judges, Xu said.