Detentions related to outbreak decline

China has seen a decline in the number of people detained on suspicion of disturbing COVID-19 prevention work over the past three months, a result of intensified efforts and effective control over the pandemic, an official of the country's top procuratorate said.

Chinese prosecutors approved the arrest of 5,370 people for alleged offenses relating to disturbing pandemic control from January to June, many of whom were charged with fraud and obstruction of official duties, according to Dong Guiwen, director of the case management office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

According to Dong, during the first six months of this year, the number of arrest approvals related to the pandemic situation was high in February and reached a peak of 1,943 in March.

"February and March could be said to have been our country's most critical period of fighting against the disease in the first half of this year, while prosecutors nationwide at that time were ordered to focus on and speed up the handling of pandemic-related cases," he explained.

Since April, when the domestic outbreak was basically brought under control, the number of such arrest approvals has been rapidly declining, he added.

As the fight against pandemicrelated crimes strengthened over the first six months, Chinese prosecutors also focused on expanding the scope of public interest litigation in a bid to implement the decision made by the central leadership during the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2019.

Public interest litigation, as described in revisions of the Chinese Administrative Procedure Law and the Civil Procedure Law in 2017, currently covers four fields: environmental protection, food and drug safety, preservation of State assets and the transfer of land rights.

Under the Administration Law, prosecutors can send prelitigation suggestions to government departments before initiating a lawsuit if administrators are found to not be carrying out their duties or are behaving improperly. Litigation will be launched if relevant government agencies fail to rectify the problems.

"We made efforts to deal with public interest litigation in new industries in the first half of this year, such as the protection of women and children, online offenses and conservation of cultures and heritages, and we saw a sharp rise in litigation related to those industries during the period," Dong said.

From January to June, prosecutors across the country handled 7,846 prelitigation-related cases involving those industries, almost four times as many as the previous year, according to the top procuratorate.

Considering that the pandemic prevents people from engaging in face-to-face activities, "we also paid more attention to using the internet to share legal knowledge with the public-especially juveniles-to enhance their legal awareness and promote law-based governance," Dong said.

For example, almost 21 million people attended online legal lectures developed by prosecutors during the first six months of this year, a dramatic jump year-on-year, he added.