Litigation to help public to be widened

Move decided by recent Party plenum will bolster rule of law in governance

Expanding the scope of public interest litigation - as decided by the central leadership at a key meeting last month - will help to uphold and improve the rule of law in the country's governance, legal experts said.

The four-day Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which concluded on Oct 31, decided to take some new measures, including expanding the scope of litigation to better safeguard the public interest to continue advancing law-based governance.

"The expansion, I think, is necessary, because the aim of initiating such litigation is to help residents resolve more problems that truly affect or harm their interest," said Yang Yanjun, a prosecutor from Beijing Dongcheng district people's procuratorate.