More cases involve govt agencies

By Xie Chuanjiao and Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-25 10:46

More than 50 central government agencies were taken to court by public and the private sector in China in the past two decades, about a half of these in the last four years, Beijing's high court said Tuesday.

From 1990 to 2008, 35,478 cases were filed by citizens seeking legal action against officials and government agencies for violating their interests, a press conference by Beijing Municipal High People's Court said.

There were more than 3000 cases involving trademarks, patents and other intellectual property rights disputes during the period recorded and involved plaintiffs from major domestic enterprises as well as 20 counties and regions, said the court's vice-president Wang Zhenqing.

"The cases have led to huge social impact, some of these influencing national policy adjustments in certain areas, or being related to the establishment or improvement of certain regulations," Wang told the conference.

From 2004 to May 2008 alone, there were 11,492 such cases, i.e. 30 percent of the past decade's total, said Wang.

Citizens have increasingly been taking legal action against government agencies, especially in matters of housing demolition and relocation, primary endowment insurance, medical insurance, work injury insurance as well as basic living allowance, Wang said.

In June 2001, Qiao Zhanxiang, a lawyer from Hebei province, took the Ministry of Railways to court over the increase in ticket costs during the Spring Festival peak travel period. He claimed that the ministry's practice of raising the fare by 20 to 30 percent during tourist season was illegal.

While courts dismissed the appeals in the ensuing trials, insiders said the ministry stopped charging higher ticket rates since the winter of 2007.

A high percentage of government agencies lost the suits in the first several years. However, the rate constantly declined and was down to 8 percent last year, Wang told China Daily.

"That does not mean that it is becoming more difficult for citizens to win suits against officials or government agencies, rather that the trend has greatly strengthened administrative performances according to law," he said.

Beijing's high court Tuesday also introduced guidelines to further protect the rights of private parties, including one that required the courts to deal with all applicable lawsuits in time, Xing Shangming, president of the court's administrative trials tribunal, said.

In many cases private parties losing a case do have reasonable requests. The court required judges to intensify legal assistance and coordinate relevant departments to help solve these problems.

"Disputes involving citizens against government agencies propel the latter to perform better, in accordance with the law," Qiu Baochang, dean of the Beijing-based Huijia Law Firm, told China Daily.