In a bid to safeguard the development and growth of the private economy, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) released 11 typical cases on the protection of private enterprises' property rights and  of the rights and interests of entrepreneurs on July 31.

The cases involve a diverse range of judicial practices, such as compliance reform of enterprises involved, the protection of private enterprises and entrepreneurs' reputation rights, equal protection of public and private enterprises, the rescue of distressed private companies, and execution of judgments with good faith and in a civilized manner, which highlight the achievements of the people's courts in serving and safeguarding the development of the private economy.  

To minimize the consequences to a company brought about by the crimes of the company's senior executives and actual controllers, people's courts have striven to promote compliance reform of the company involved, rendering equal focus on crime punishment and company governance, so that the affected company's production and operation can be maintained. Next, courts will advance the compliance reform from individual cases to industrial level by issuing judicial advice, according the top court.

Among the 11 cases, two involved disputes between the private sector and the public sector, and the court ruled in favor of the private sector in both cases, reflecting the courts' principle of equal protection in accordance with the law in trial work.

Regarding efforts to rescue distressed enterprises, from 2018 to 2022, courts across the country helped 3,285 private companies out of trouble via bankruptcy restructuring, and stabilized jobs for some 923,000 employees. The quality and efficiency of bankruptcy trials has been further improved this year. As of July 30, 12,862 bankruptcy cases had been accepted by courts across the country, 6,573 of which had been concluded. Of the concluded cases, debts of nearly 19.5 billion yuan ($2.71 billion) have been resolved, 13,000 employees have been resettled, and 353 enterprises have been successfully restructured.

People's courts have also made great efforts to ensure winning enterprises can cash their rights in a timely manner and support losing enterprises to tide over the difficulties. On the one hand, courts have increased enforcement efforts and taken multiple measures to make sure real money goes into the pockets of the winning enterprises. On the other hand, courts have adopted a goodwill principle in enforcement, trying to enable "the fish in the pond to survive by putting water into the pond instead of draining the pond to get fish". Regarding the unfinished construction project in one of the 11 cases, the court did not simply auction the project, but introduced capital in accordance with the law to resume construction work, achieving the delivery of 1,472 apartments, the conclusion of almost 500 related cases in a package, the resolution of nearly 900 creditors of 800 million yuan in claims, the full payment of migrant workers' wages, and stable jobs for the company staff. The company has now resumed normal operation, with its credit repaired.