Xi Focus: Serving justice to serve the people

BEIJING - As the Communist Party of China celebrated its 100th birthday in early July, China solemnly declared the accomplishment of its first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

One key aspect of such a goal is to deliver justice and ensure equality and fairness through the operation of the judicial system.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has on many occasions noted that fairness and justice constitute a noble value upheld by the Party.

"Our fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people decides that we must pursue justice, protect people's rights and interests, and uphold justice," according to Xi.

Right the wrong

In early 2014, during a central conference on judicial, procuratorial, and public security work, Xi cautioned that the adverse effects of one wrongful conviction might nullify the gains brought by ninety-nine fair rulings.

He also pointed out in 2015 that problems such as the miscarriage of justice, judicial corruption, and other factors that hamper judicial impartiality will erode law-based governance and social fairness and justice if not dealt with in a timely manner.

The case of Nie Shubin stands out as a typical example of the correction of miscarriages of justice.

Nie was executed for rape and murder in 1995. He was, however, posthumously acquitted in 2016 when a retrial found the conviction had been based on insufficient evidence and unclear facts.

Nie was among several criminal defendants whose wrongful convictions were overturned by judicial organs after retrials under the law in recent years.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, Chinese courts have handled 1.78 million retrial cases through trial supervision procedures and 3.86 million cases involving changes to the enforcement of criminal punishment. Retrials helped overturn wrongful judgments.