China was among the safest countries in the world and complied with the international rules, according to Interpol's general assembly held in Beijing in September 2018.

China's courts have been concentrating on solving problems that most concern the people, safeguarding national security, promoting social fairness and justice and guaranteeing people gain a stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness and security ever since the 19th National Congress in 2017.

Regulations to safeguard stability, judgments made to crack down gang-related crimes, training courses for judicial staff and establishment of special courts played important roles in promoting China's rule of law in 2018.

At the beginning of 2018, a document on the beginning of the campaign to crack down gang-related crimes was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council.

In January, a guideline on dealing with gang-related crimes was jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), the Supreme People Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice.

Eleven specific gang-related delinquencies are the main targets according to the guideline.

Courts in all provincial regions in China released series of local regulations on fighting against gang-related crimes.

For instance, courts in Fujian, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces issued regulations on the standard of proof and authentication and courts in Shandong and Guangdong provinces released guidelines for procedures and model cases.

By Nov 15, 2018, courts had heard 657 gang-related cases and closed 262 of them. A total of 1,044 suspects were punished by fixed-term imprisonment with heavy penalty accounting for 53.98 percent of sentences.

In addition to anti-crime campaigns, protecting entrepreneurs and encouraging innovation were focuses of courts at various levels in China.

In January 2018, the SPC issued a guideline to create a legal environment for entrepreneurship and innovation and issued guide cases on the protection of intellectual property and entrepreneur rights in January and December.

A series of intellectual property courts were also launched in China to provide judicial guarantees for innovation and support private economic growth.

Smart courts, online trials and self-service court opened in some provinces to promote the governance of cyberspace and make it easier for people to obtain judicial assistance.

For example, the Hangzhou Internet Court heard and dealt disputes online and a mini WeChat program was launched by Ningbo courts in Zhejiang province through which people are able to go through the judicial procedures by phone.

Improving judges' professional capacity was also a key goal for courts.

In April, more than 800 criminal judges in China attended professional training on handling gang-related crimes.

The legal system and judicial assistance in China keeps improving and comprehensively implementing rule of law will continue as a main focus to promote fairness and justice and to form a sound and stable society.