China’s Supreme People’s Court stung as congress has its say on legal papers scandal
- ‘Unanswered questions’ over judge-turned-whistleblower who admitted losing documents for major trial results in lowest approval rating in three years
Approval among top legislators of China’s highest court appears to have fallen after it was hit by a major scandal that involved a senior judge and the loss of legal papers in a high-profile case.
In all, 156 delegates to the National People’s Congress voted on Friday not to approve the annual report submitted by the Supreme People’s Court, up from 138 last year. A majority of 2,725 approved the report while there were 67 abstentions.
Approval rates for such reports at the congress – China’s legislature loyal to the Communist Party – are typically very high compared to Western parliaments.
But the approval for the court’s report dropped for the first time in three years, despite the legislature growing more supportive of policies put forward by the party since President Xi Jinping took the helm in 2012.
The congress recorded no opposition to this year’s annual work report from the State Council, China’s cabinet, while there were two votes against last year’s constitutional amendment that scrapped the presidential term limit.
“The supreme court has done much, but it has left some important questions unanswered in the report,” said Li Jie, an NPC delegate from Hubei in central China who cast his vote on the report on Friday, but stopped short of saying if his was a “nay”.
