Work report in English will be published each year to help promote understanding

The top court is to publish an annual work report in English to give the world a better understanding of China's judicial system and to reduce misunderstandings, a senior court official says.

Following the warm public response to the release of the first English-language work report in late November, the court has decided to make it an annual practice, Hu Yunteng, director of the research department of the Supreme People's Court, told China Daily.

The report has three sections: law enforcement and case adjudication, innovation in management, and reform and development. The first part mainly covers criminal, civil and commercial trials and also deals with national compensation and petition work.

"We've done a lot in recent years to make the court system more fair and independent, although there are still problems," Hu said.

"But because of language barriers, foreigners know little about the progress. They see more negative reports from the foreign media about China's judicial system."

For example, he said, some foreign media repeatedly report on unfair court verdicts. "But the fact is that more than 91 percent of litigants in all lawsuits in 2012 were satisfied with the verdict after the first trial. The rate increased to 99 percent after the appeal trial."