Meng Xiang, head of the executive bureau of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), explained the highlights of China's enforcement of civil cases at a press conference of the World Enforcement Conference on Jan 21.

China highly values the enforcement of civil cases and has added it as an important part of "governing the country by law".

The enforcement work intends to protect the rights and interests of the parties, create a sound business climate, build the credit system, deepen the reform and opening-up and maintain the legal order.

According to Meng, China's courts have proved innovative in enforcement work particularly since 2016, and have enriched relevant procedures.

He outlined some highlights in China's civil law enforcement at the press conference.

Promote construction of check and control network to search for target debtors

Under the premise of keeping information to protect citizens, the SPC build a nationwide network connecting background data with related departments, through which courts are able to obtain property information of people subjected to enforcement and conduct investigations.

To date, the SPC has established information sharing agreements with several departments including the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the People’s Bank of China and some commercial banks.

Judicial officers are able to get information pertaining to deposits, real estate property, vehicles, securities and futures and foreign investment equity through cyber-sharing, which improves enforcement efficiency.

Joint punishment mechanism supports credit system construction

The SPC recently released a judicial interpretation saying that people acting dishonestly will be included on the publicized defaulters list.

The National Development and Reform Commission, Civil Aviation Administration of China and China Railway have agreed to adopt the mechanism with the SPC to limit defaulters' high consumption, bid and tender, travel and tourism

Online judicial sales improves judicial auction volume

Online judicial sales have been initially promoted by courts in Zhejiang and Jiangsu province since 2012, and adopted in many other courts because of their transparency, easy procedures and low auction costs.

The SPC has released a judicial interpretation about online judicial sales. Since Jan 1, 2017, such sales were promoted in courts at various levels in China, improving trade volume and transaction prices.

Enforcement information website meet the public's right to know

China established its enforcement information website in 2014 and has constantly updated it, releasing the procedures and main enforcement measures of the cases to the parties and the public. Users of the website can search for information of persons subject to judgment enforcement and those in default, as well as announcements of online judicial sales.

Strengthening enforcement to improve judicial protection

The SPC has released several important judicial interpretations and regulations on issues including property preservation, property surveys, conciliation of execution and security for execution since 2016.

A comprehensive platform was also launched to unify standards and procedures of enforcement.

In addition, an online enforcement command management system was established, through which judicial officers are able to have remote video conferences and give enforcement guidance.

These platforms and systems provide convenience for courts in different regions to deal with cross-regional cases and have saved enforcement costs.

To date, the platforms had provided cross-regional judicial assistance for more than 500,000 times.

Strengthening bankruptcy work for sound business climate

In 2015, China established a mechanism by which enforcement institutions can transfer their cases to judicial offices in charge of bankruptcy, if approved by one of the parties.

In the past four years, China's courts have forced many insolvent enterprises to apply for bankruptcy, which contributed to the creation of a high-quality business environment.

Focus on livelihood cases to improve people's sense of gain and fullfilment

China's courts have prioritized livelihood cases, which generally cover payment of wages, alimony, compensation for medical malpractice and industrial injury insurance, to greet the New Year and Spring Festival.

Since 2014, courts at various levels would open enforcement campaigns targeting livelihood disputes around Spring Festival annually.

Improving judicial relief

In recent years, China's courts have innovated in increasing the sources of relief funds and attempted to set up a system of "property preservation plus judicial assistance", which means insurance companies help execution applicants solve problems of property preservation.

When the people subject to execution are unable to afford the compensation, the insurance companies will settle the claim.