The head of China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) emphasized the need to deepen judicial reform and give full play to building a sound legal environment during his investigation in Guangdong province from Dec 25 to 26.

Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of the SPC, came to the top court’s first circuit court in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong province, for investigation and research and to hear its work report.

The first circuit court of the SPC was founded in Shenzhen in 2015 to build an internationalized legal environment for business in Guangdong province.

Over the past three years, trial quality and efficiency have improved and letters and visits for litigation purposes have tended to decrease, which proves it was the correct decision to set up a circuit court and seek achievements in judicial reform, according to Zhou.

During the investigation in Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Dec 26, Zhou listened to the judges’ advice on judicial reform. He also learned smart systems such as electronic portfolio synchronous production and an informatization platform for diverse dispute settlement at the court.

Zhou pointed out that the courts of Guangzhou take the lead in judicial reform in China. And the courts in Shenzhen play a positive role building a model judicial city.

Zhou also required strengthening of property rights protection and proper hearing of cases. Finally, he stressed the importance of improved judicial policies and explorations of sound working mechanisms to create more beneficial experience for and through courts in China.