Chinese courts told to prioritize privacy protection in transparency drive

Chinese courts have been ordered to fully protect litigants' personal information and boost efforts to analyze legal data while improving transparency, according to the Supreme People's Court.

"We clearly see there is still room for more transparency, despite the fact we've seen major progress in achieving openness in recent years," Li Liang, a senior official with the top court, said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a seminar on how to improve judicial transparency, where he also highlighted the importance of privacy protection.

"We've asked courts at all levels to study effective measures to increase protection of litigants' personal data and business secrets, and we've encouraged research into technologies that can solve the problem," he added.

People can learn more about the Chinese courts through several websites, including those that allow users to search for specific court rulings or livestream hearings.

More than 42.6 million court rulings have been disclosed to the public since a special website to release such information was set up in 2013, data from the Supreme People's Court show.