Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People’s Court of China, met with Barbara Woodward, the UK’s ambassador to China, on Dec 13 to exchange views on judicial reform and cooperation.

Zhou welcomed Woodward and indicated that the Sino-UK relationship has witnessed rapid growth in different fields' cooperation, which marks the beginning of an everlasting, open and mutually beneficial golden age of Sino-UK relations.

China and the UK have maintained a good relationship in the judicial field for a long time. They have developed cooperative projects between two countries' respective supreme courts which in turn play a positive role in building a Sino-UK comprehensive strategic partnership towards the 21st century, Zhou said.

According to Zhou, Chinese courts are actively advancing judicial system reform, trying to guarantee that courts exercise their jurisdiction in fair and independent way so as to build an efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system.

Zhou pointed out that In this unprecedented and influential judicial reform Chinese courts are advancing criminal litigation system reform with trials as a core. The goal is to let people experience equality and fairness in every case.

Zhou expressed his wish that China and the UK will deepen judicial cooperation based on fruitful results, increased exchanges and shared experience to safeguard the rights and interests of the two countries’ peoples and promote global governance based on the rule of law.

Woodward thanked Zhou for the meeting and indicated her desire to further promote judicial exchange and cooperation and the continuous development of mutual friendship.