China continues to improve public legal services: report

BEIJING -- Big improvements were achieved in strengthening public legal services in China in 2022, according to a report from China's Ministry of Justice.

The ministry basically addressed the problem of some counties not having lawyers by mobilizing law firms to set up branches in 46 counties spreading across six provincial-level regions, including Tibet and Qinghai, which were lacking lawyers before, the report said.

In 2022, legal aid institutions across China handled nearly 2.3 million legal aid cases, which benefited more than 2.3 million people, and provided more than 24 million legal consultations, noted the report.

By the end of 2022, judicial offices at all levels had handled more than 4.9 million social disputes, carried out 1.4 million activities to raise public awareness of the rule of law, and accepted over 6.48 million legal consulting requests, said the report.

Justice departments also offered assistance to primary-level governments in formulating about 48,000 normative documents and put forward over 300,000 legal suggestions as of 2022, the report added.