Further education

In addition to improved training, the top court, universities and government departments have strengthened cooperation in areas such as the further education of bilingual ethnic talent.

In August 2015, the top court named Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Kazakh and Korean as the five major languages for the training of bilingual ethnic judges, while the National Ethnic Affairs Commission launched a project aimed at educating 1,500 such officials by 2020.

By the end of last year, 70 percent of the quota had been achieved, according to the top court.

In recent years, the top court has arranged for trainees to act as observers as senior judges preside over bilingual trials, and has also worked with Minzu University of China, Northwest Minzu University and Southwest Minzu University to upgrade officials' language skills.

Meanwhile, local courts are also taking action to improve the quality of bilingual hearings.

For example, the High People's Court of the Tibet autonomous region and Tibet University in Lhasa, have developed online Mandarin-Tibetan translation software to help judges write verdicts more quickly.

Namtso, the judge from Lhasa, suggested that the top court should provide voice-recognition systems for courtrooms in ethnic areas to ease the burden on court clerks when they are recording bilingual trials.

"After all, high-efficiency trials help to uphold justice and safeguard litigants' rights," she said.