China's prosecutors boost oversight of administrative verdicts to ensure justice

Chinese prosecutors have stepped up supervision over verdicts and procedures in administrative litigation in recent years to ensure laws are correctly applied and justice is upheld, according to a report submitted Tuesday to China's top legislature.

The report, presented by the Supreme People's Procuratorate to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, showed that from 2019 to 2023, prosecutors supervised the adjudication of 87,000 administrative cases, marking a 2.9-fold increase from the previous five years, with an average annual rise of 22 percent.

In the first nine months of this year alone, prosecutors reviewed the verdicts of 18,000 administrative cases, a figure consistent with the same period last year, according to the report.

When prosecutors identified errors in rulings, they either lodged a protest directly or recommended retrials. Since 2019, prosecutors have raised such protests or suggestions for 2,781 cases, leading to revised verdicts in some instances.

The report also highlighted stricter oversight of administrative litigation procedures. Between January 2019 and September this year, prosecutors issued approximately 54,000 recommendations to courts on issues such as improper case filing, incorrect application of trial procedures, and delayed hearings. Courts have accepted 99 percent of these recommendations, the report said.