During the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in 2019, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) received 355 suggestions from 688 NPC deputies in 33 delegations, addressing all of them within the prescribed time limit.

Issues including comprehensively deepening judicial reform, improving the long-standing ruling enforcement mechanism, strengthening judicial protection of intellectual property, improving the litigation mechanism for seeking compensation for ecological and environmental damage, building a modern litigation service system, and cracking down on mafia-style organizations were among deputies' top concerns.

At present, actively exploring new diversified dispute resolution mechanism and comprehensively improving the capability for social governance are two of the major tasks in deepening reform in China and were also the deputies' focus.

In August 2019, the SPC issued a guideline on building a one-stop diversified dispute resolution mechanism and a one-stop litigation service center, aiming to create a new model of dispute resolution and litigation services with Chinese characteristics.

China's experience on diversified dispute resolution and litigation services is now ripening.

With the wide application of electronic information technology, the litigation mode is experiencing extensive and profound changes. However, hurdles to simplified case trials, quick rulings and smooth delivery still exist in reality.

On Jan 15, 2020, the SPC launched a two-year-long pilot program of separating simple civil litigation cases from complicated ones.

The court standardized and improved the procedures and rules on judicial confirmation, small-sum litigation, simplified litigation, the expansion of the use of the single-judge trial system and litigation involving electronic evidence, providing a legal basis for online litigation procedures. They also clarified the conditions for using electronic service of process, its scope of application and the standards for when service has been effected.

During the battle against the epidemic, Chinese courts further accelerated the building of the smart court system, actively promoted electronic litigation mode, and advanced online mediation, effectively preventing spread of the virus and fully protecting people's litigation rights.

On Aug 6, 2019, the SPC's Civil Adjudication Tribunal No 3 organized a field survey by the NPC deputies, who raised suggestions focused on intellectual property trials and judicial protection of intellectual property. At the Intellectual Property Court of Shanghai and the Higher People's Court of Shanghai the deputies put forward many effective suggestions on IP-related work.

On April 21, 2020, the SPC released an encompassing guideline on the comprehensive strengthening of the judicial protection of IP, a white paper on Chinese courts' progress in providing judicial protection of IP in 2019, and 60 major and typical IPR cases from that year.

The white paper reveals that courts across the country accepted 481,793 IP cases, concluding 475,853 of them, a year-on-year increase of 44.16 percent and 48.87 percent, respectively.

Since entering the new era, China has made across-the-board efforts to provide strong judicial services and guarantees as it becomes a global intellectual and scientific and technological power house.

In response to the suggestions from deputies on severely punishing mafia-style organizations, the SPC, together with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice, issued a series of documents including a guideline on issues concerning the handling of criminal cases related to such organizations.

These documents have had a positive and far-reaching influence on improving the quality and efficiency of handling matters of that type.

As doctors have a fundamental role as the guardians of people's health Chinese courts have always attached great importance to punishing medical-related crimes in accordance with the law.

In response to a deputy's suggestion on imposing zero-tolerance toward medical-related crimes, the SPC Vice-president Li Shaoping, held a symposium to collect deputies' advice and introduced the courts' practice of cracking down on medical-related crimes, winning the deputies' understanding and support.

On May 11, 2020, the SPC issued eight typical cases that involved severe punishment of medical-related crimes.

Data show that between 2019 and April 2020, Chinese courts concluded 159 cases related to issues including killing and wounding of medical workers and seriously disturbing the order of medical institutions, sentencing 189 defendants.

After several deputies made suggestions on the establishment of an environmental damage compensation system, the SPC issued judicial interpretations on the handling of cases related to ecological and environmental damage compensation in June 2019.

The interpretation innovatively establishes the liability system of compensation for ecological environmental damage and regards cost of restoration of the ecological environment as a measure of compensation.

In addition, the SPC had actively invited the deputies to its judicial committee's discussion on the judicial interpretation on the litigation related to ecological and environmental damage compensation as well as a press conference where typical cases on ecological and environmental protection were released.

On May 8, 2020, the SPC held a press conference to release a white paper on the trial of environmental resources-related cases, China’s progress on environment-related judicial work in 2019 and typical cases on environmental resources in 2019. It was the fourth time that the SPC had released a white paper on the trial of environment-related cases, which shows that China is making annual progress on improving environment-related judicial work.

The annual typical cases highlighted the judicial effort to restore the environment.

Wang Xuguang, head of the Adjudication Tribunal for Environment and Resources of the SPC, said that Chinese courts have explored multiple ways of satisfying liability for restoring the ecological environment, such as putting a time limit on fulfilling it, providing labor as an alternative to making compensation, conducting alternative restoration or providing substitute performance so as to ensure restoration is carried out in a timely and effective way.

In 2019, the SPC handled more than 60 suggestions on the enforcement of court rulings, which also shows that after reaching the temporary goal of "basically solving the difficulties in enforcing court rulings", the question of how to further improve enforcement work has attracted the deputies’ attention.

In June 2019, the SPC issued a five-year plan for deepening enforcement reform and improving the long-term mechanism for solving difficulties in judgment enforcement, in order to lay out the principles for establishing a mature and stable enforcement system with Chinese characteristics.

Over the past year, the SPC has issued a number of judicial documents on enforcement that promoted implementation of a long-term enforcement mechanism and further improvement in its overall pattern.

On Jan 2, 2020, the SPC issued a guideline on further strengthening the concept of civilized enforcement. The guideline says that under the premise of still taking compulsory enforcement as the main work, the SPC set out a number of measures to promote civilized enforcement ranging from the reasonable selection of property subject to enforcement to the use of a reconciliation system.

During the period of the epidemic prevention and control, Chinese courts further advanced the concept of civilized enforcement, opening up a judicial green channel to ensure the resumption of enterprises' work and production.

In conclusion, the SPC has listened to people's voices and responded to deputies' requests.

In 2019, by improving the procedure for handling deputies' suggestions and effectively implementing the supervision mechanism, the SPC achieved a deputies' satisfaction rate of 100 percent.