Top legal bodies gain lawmakers' support

The annual reports from China's top court and top procuratorate received their highest level of support from National People's Congress deputies in the past decade, showing the recognition that legal reform has won from lawmakers.[Special coverage]

The work report of the Supreme People's Court, which outlines work they did during year and their plans for coming year, got 213 votes of opposition on Sunday, the final day of the top legislature's annual session. The figure was down substantially from the 378 opposition votes last year.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate, which takes charge of the lawsuits against senior corrupt officials, also managed to cut the number of opposition votes from 390 last year to 284.

The Government Work Report, delivered by Premier Li Keqiang on March 3, won 2,852 approval and 18 opposition votes. The work reports of the top court and top procuratorate had received a large number of opposition votes in past years. In 2013, the top court's report was opposed by 605 NPC deputies.

The lawmakers' recognition of the top court and top procuratorate followed the practical and deepened legal reform carried out by the judicial authorities last year.

Chinese courts reheard 1,317 cases and corrected a number of wrongful verdicts in 2014, according to the top court's report delivered by Chief Justice Zhou Qiang on March 12.

Procurator-General Cao Jianming said in his report that Chinese prosecutors seized 749 fugitive corrupt suspects from home and abroad last year. Among them, 49 were repatriated or were persuaded to turn themselves in from 17 countries, including the US and Canada.

However, unlike the top judicial authorities that saw a drop in opposition votes, the budget report by the Ministry of Finance got 304 opposition votes, the highest among all the eight reports, drafts and resolutions.