Better teams for judges and prosecutors

"IF THE LEADING OFFICIALS OF COURTS are on the lists of judges or prosecutors, they must do their duty by judging cases or making public prosecutions," said Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at a recent conference. He was blaming the leading officials of certain local courts, who, in the ongoing judicial reform that sets a percentage limit on judges among the court staff, list themselves as judges. Comments:

In past reform of State-owned enterprises, it was the workers that suffered and got laid off, while the officials stayed in positions without their interests harmed; the ongoing judicial reform cannot afford to repeat that mistake and that's why the top leadership has intervened. The reform should not always come at the price of poor working people, and the interests of officials at various levels must be challenged or it will lead to failure.

He Fan, a judge at the Supreme People's Court, May 6