China's progress on rule of law in 2019

BEIJING -- China made notable progress in promoting the rule of law in various areas in 2019, according to an annual report released by the China Law Society.

The 2019 annual report on China's rule of law covers 12 sections, including the legislative and oversight work of the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee, political and legal reform, law-based administration and other areas.

The following facts and figures from the report offer a glimpse of China's accomplishments in advancing the rule of law in 2019:

-- The NPC and its Standing Committee enacted six laws, revised 16 laws and adopted eight decisions on legal issues and other major issues.

-- By the end of 2019, China had 274 laws in force.

-- Public security organs nationwide busted 2,806 organizations operating as criminal syndicates, while the number of criminal cases dropped 4.1 percent year-on-year.

-- The Supreme People's Court accepted about 38,500 cases and concluded 34,481.

-- Local courts across the country accepted over 31.56 million cases, of which over 29 million were concluded.

-- Procuratorates across the country handled nearly 3.15 million cases in total, including about 127,000 public-interest litigations.

-- Community correction organizations nationwide accommodated 674,000 offenders, of whom 582,000 were newly received last year.

-- A total of 379 judicial and administrative rehabilitation sites in China had received and offered treatment to over 1.5 million people as of last year.

-- More than 1.27 million legal-aid cases were handled and concluded last year, with legal-aid services covering nearly 2 million people in need.

-- There were 734,000 grassroots mediation committees and roughly 3.38 million mediators in China helping to settle civil disputes.

-- The year 2019 also saw China's business environment further optimized, with 13,000-plus administrative items canceled nationwide.