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National People's Congress - China's Top Law Maker

• China's courts recruit more staff for death penalty reviews
  BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhua) -- China's courts will hire 1,900 more staff for open court trials for second instance death sentence cases, according to a source with the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

   "Over the past year, the SPC has been recruiting personnel for local courts where case numbers are high," the unnamed SPC official told an inspection team of the National People's Congress, the parliament, in a working report.

  According to China's Criminal Procedural Law, since July 2006, open court sessions are obligatory when a second instance case is defended by a people's procuratorate.  Previously, most appeal cases -- even death penalty cases -- were not been heard in open court because of a lack of qualified personnel. A local court source confirmed that understaffing often made it impossible to try death penalty cases in open court sessions.

  Since 2005, Chinese media have exposed several errors of judgement in death sentence cases and have criticized courts for alack of caution.  If second instance trials are not heard openly, the public do not feel convinced -- the process is not transparent, the rights and interests of the accused are not fully protected, and judicial errors could occur," said the source, adding that the second line of defence is vital in correcting mistakes in original verdicts and preventing injustices.

  Last year, about 25,000 new staff were added to Chinese courts to beef up local courts.

  Statistics show that last year 889,042 people were convicted by courts at all levels across the country, and 153,724 people received sentences longer than five years, including life imprisonment and death penalty.  Figures from the Beijing No. 1 and No. 2 intermediate people's courts indicate that in the first five months of 2007 the number of death sentences dropped 10 percent from last year.

  China ex-drug chief appeals death sentence
  June 12, 2007 - China's former food and drug safety chief, facing execution for corruption amid a series of health scandals, has appealed against the death penalty, media said on Tuesday. Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, was convicted in May on charges of taking bribes and dereliction of duty. It was an harsh sentence, reflecting the weight China is giving to the issues of corruption and food safety as they grapple with a series of safety breaches involving toxins in food and other products.
• Former head of China's drug watchdog sentenced to death
  People's Daily, May 29, 2007 - Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), was sentenced to death by a Beijing court Tuesday morning. Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking bribes and dereliction of duty, according to the first instance hearing of the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. (Click for full report.)
• Yahoo sued over kowtowing to China, Vnunet.com April 20, 2007
• Canadian gets life term in China Toronto Star, April 20, 2007
• Chinese writer sues US movie giant over copyright
  Xinhua News, April 11, 2007 - A local court on Wednesday heard the lawsuit by a Chinese science fiction writer for alleged infringement of his copyright by US movie giant 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. The court open at 8:30 a.m. on the second day after the US government filed two WTO cases against China over intellectual property rights and access to the Chinese publication market. The writer, a 43-year-old Li Jianmin, said 20th Century Fox while producing the movie The Day After Tomorrow copied the creative conception and the major plots of two plays he completed in 2001 and 2002. Li lodged the lawsuit at the the Intermediate People's Court of Dongying, east China's Shandong Province in March last year. The court accepted the suit last April.
• China Approves Property Law, Strengthening Its Middle Class, New York Times, Mar. 16, 2007
• China toughens crackdown on corrpution
  Xinhua, Jan. 9, 2007 - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday pledged a more severe and systematic crackdown on corruption in a key-note speech delivered at a national anti-graft conference. Hu, who is also the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), made the call at the Seventh Plenary Session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), a three-day meeting that started on Monday. Acknowledging the progress the commission had made in the past year, Hu said the Party still faced an "arduous fight against corruption". (Click for full report)
   
• Chinese prosecutors probe 9,582 commercial bribery cases in 2006
  Xinhua, Feb. 21, 2007 - Chinese prosecutors probed 9,582 commercial bribery cases involving public servants in 2006 Xinhua has learnt from the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP). As much as 1.5 billion yuan (192 million U.S. dollars) were involved in these cases, the SPP said. (Click for full report)Yahoo China wins lawsuit
  Dec. 21, 2006 - Yahoo China has won a lawsuit it brought against a local search engine operator over unfair competition, Yahoo China's owner, Alibaba.com, said on Thursday. Beijing's Second Intermediate Court ruled that Beijing Sanjiwuxian Internet Technology, operator of the Qihoo search engine, must stop competing unfairly and compensate Yahoo China for damages and legal costs, Alibaba said in a statement. Beijing Sanjiwuxian was also required to make a public announcement clarifying "incorrect allegations," the statement said, without specifying the size of any possible damages. (Click for full report)
  
  
  Chinese Paliement National People's Congress (NPC)
   
• Brother of China's Last Emperor Loses Lawsuit for Image Rights
  Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006 - The 88-year-old younger brother of China's last emperor Aisin Giorro Pu Yi (1906-1967) has lost a lawsuit in which he claimed copyright of the emperor's image. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, in its final verdict, ruled that from the last emperor to an ordinary citizen of new China, Aisin Giorro Pu Yi's life was closely connected with China's history. As he was a public figure, the exhibitors had not infringed upon his image right in holding photo exhibitions of Pu Yi's life and political activities. Pu Yi's brother Jin Youzhi, with the original name of Aisin Giorro Pu Ren, found in November last year that photos of Pu Yi were displayed at an exhibition for six years in the Forbidden City, the imperial residence in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. (Click for full story)
   
• Weapons smugglers could face death penalty
  Xinhua Nov. 16, 2006 - China's Supreme People's Court on Thursday announced that anyone found smuggling more than ten artillery shells across the country's borders would receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. According to a judicial interpretation of the criminal law on smuggling cases issued by the court, people who smuggle between five and ten conventional less-than-60-millimeter shells or grenades across the border, or no more than five more-than-60-millimeter conventional shells will face over seven years in prison and a fine or confiscation of property. People who smuggle more than one unconventional shell in or out of the country, or more conventional artillery shells or grenades than the numbers detailed above will be adjudged to be committing smuggling offences of "an extraordinarily serious nature" and shall be given life imprisonment or death penalty in line with Article 151 of the Criminal Law. People who smuggle less than five less-than-60-millimeter conventional shells will face a prison sentence of between three and seven years and a fine.
   
• Top Legislature Passes New Laws
  Xinhua News, Apr. 30, 2006 - New laws relating to farm products quality and safety, passports and many other important documents were adopted at the five-day 21st session of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress which concluded Saturday in Beijing.  The law on the quality and safety of farm products will take effect on November 1 and the passport legislation on January 1, 2007. (Click for full report)
   
• International Brands Unite to Fight Counterfeits in China Xinnhua News May 4, 2006 - 19 international brand-name firms have launches a joint year-long campaign to monitor counterfeit goods in China, to help the government protect intellectual property rights. (Click for full report)
   
• Vuitton Wins Fake Handbag Case in Beijing
  China Daily, April 18, 2006 -  A department store in Beijing which was selling fake handbags supposedly produced by designer Louis Vuitton has been ordered to pay the Frenchman 150,000 yuan (US$18,500) by a city court. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled that Chaowai Men's Department Store had infringed the world-famous Vuitton trademark. (Click for full report)
   
• Former minister sentenced to life imprisonment
  Xinhua News, Dec. 27, 2005 -- Tian Fengshan, former Chinese Minister of Land and Resources, was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprived of political rights for life on Tuesday for accepting bribes worth 4.36 million yuan (538,270 U.S. dollars.) (Click for full report)
   
• China issues new regulation on food safety
      BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China's cabinet publicized a special regulation on the supervision of food safety on Friday amid serious criticism from home and abroad of the quality of food products made in China.

      The regulation issued by the State Council is aimed at intensifying the control over producers and distributors dealing with food products. The main points are:

      -- Inspection and quarantine authorities, as well as commercial and drug supervisors, should establish positive and negative records for Chinese food exporters and submit the records to the media regularly.

      -- Local governments at county level and above are mainly responsible for the supervision of food product safety.

      -- Exporters of food products who provide fake quality certificates or evade quality and quarantine inspections will be fined three times the product's value.

      China has faced a barrage of international criticism over the state of its food industry in the first six months of the year following a series of scandals.

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced at the end of March that pet food imported from China had caused the deaths of cats and dogs. Later, in May, Chinese toothpaste was found to contain diethylene glycol in Central America and the United States.

      Japan, Singapore, Australia and other countries sent back millions of toothpaste tubes and Canada halted imports from China.

      The FDA also refused seafood products from China in June, saying that it would not resume imports until Chinese exporters provided necessary safety certificates.

      The regulation has also set out rules on the supervision of imported food products.

      -- China's imported food products should meet both the national compulsory standards and criteria in the contracts signed by Chinese importers and foreign exporters.

      -- Chinese importers should make detailed records of domestic distributions for imported food products and the records should be kept for at least two years.

      -- Inspection and quarantine authorities should establish a blacklist for foreign exporters and to seriously punish domestic importers who introduced unqualified food products.