China's chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court of China, Zhou Qiang (right), meets with his Portuguese counterpart António Silva Henriques Gaspar in Lisbon. [Photo by Zhang Liyun/Xinhua]

At the invitation of his Portuguese counterpart, Zhou Qiang, president of the China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), started a three-day visit to Portugal on April 17.

At his meeting with António Silva Henriques Gaspar in Lisbon Zhou said that courts in China are working hard to deepen reform of the judicial system and to "let people experience justice and fairness in every judicial case".

“We are speeding up the construction of a socialist judicial system which is fair, efficient and well respected,” said Zhou.

China and Portugal have ongoing exchanges and cooperation in the law sector.

A Portuguese court delegation led by Gaspar visited Beijing on May 16, 2016 and a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two sides.

Gaspar extended his warm welcome to Zhou and said the visit to Beijing last year left him with a strong impression, especially of Chinese courts’ information-based system and their open and transparent judicial activities.

Zhou’s visit will certainly increase exchanges and friendship between the two countries, said Gaspar, adding that it will ultimately contribute to development of both countries’ legal system.

A cooperative mechanism on judicial case studies will be established to assist the judiciary in China and Portugal.

Zhou said that against the backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative, the personnel and cargo exchanges between the two countries are closer than ever before. The demand for judicial cooperation is consequently also on the rise.

Improving cooperation in the legal sector, added Zhou, is beneficial to the growth of global legal civilization.