In the last full week of the year, the Court called on the masses to “believe in law, not petitioning” (信法不信访). To that end, the Court leadership publicized on Wechat (and through the press and the national court website) two initiatives:
- Focusing on enforcement of 10 types of disputes affecting the livelihood of ordinary people (涉民生案件) that it identifies as most likely to cause social disturbances;
- Its views on the draft Administrative Litigation Law (行政诉讼法), shortly before the National People’s Congress issued its draft for public consultation.
In a five month initiative launched by telephone conference (a form of communication often used by the Communist Party), the Court is focusing on the enforcement of judgments in the following areas:
- unpaid wages（particularly owed to migrant workers);
- support payments (to the elderly);
- child support;
- alimony;
- compensation payments (to the disabled or families of the deceased)
- medical malpractice compensation;
- traffic accident compensation; and
- industrial accidents.
The Court has called on the lower courts to:
- select cases for enforcement;
- devote resources to the campaign;
- use its database of judgment debtors and work with the People’s Bank of China Credit Reference Center to identify assets, so outstanding judgments can be enforced.
The Court has issued similar notices in previous years prior to Chinese New Year. Judgments in these types of cases are often difficult to enforce for a number of reasons:
- with China’s legal aid system inadequate for societal needs, migrant workers and other ordinary people have problems navigating the court system;
- the enforcement system, in particular, is difficult for individuals to navigate;
- although work has been done by both the court system and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, the smaller companies that are the judgment debtors in many of these cases are skillful at disappearing without a trace and disguising their assets;
- these cases are generally not priority cases for the enforcement divisions of local courts.
The intention is to avoid the yearly phenomenon of migrant workers demonstrating in the run up to Chinese New Year because their company bosses have disappeared and absconded with their unpaid wages.
Provincial high courts are tweaking the focus of the enforcement campaign to suit their local circumstances. The Gansu Province Higher People’s Court, for example, is focusing on 1300 cases that date as far back as 2011 and is working with the provincial Political Legal Committee and Finance Department to allocate more funds for those in particular difficulty. The persons affected are fortunate if their case makes it onto the list, because for migrant workers, traffic accident victims, disabled workers, and others affected, justice delayed is justice denied.
Court officials may also have some self-interest in having these cases resolved locally, because some, when talking privately, mentioned that petitioners frequently surround the front gate of the Court.
The other initiative publicized by the Court to encourage the masses to avoid social disturbances is several of its proposed amendments to the Administrative Litigation Law. Admitting that administrative cases are difficult from beginning to end, the Court i to focus on several major issues related to the refusal of courts to take administrative cases:
- expanding the type of cases that the courts may accept (including government agencies infringing on private rights to land and other natural resources);
- permitting parties to file cases orally;
- implementing stricter procedures for case acceptance;
- imposing more liability on courts that refuse to take cases.
In its statement, the Court mentioned that many cases involving government action as ones that should be resolved through the courts rather than through public protests. Because of the structure of the local courts, in particular local courts being funded by local governments, it is not in the interest of the local courts that these cases receive a hearing. The court reforms announced late last year may eventually improve matters.
Supreme People's Court Monitor 
The phenomena of runaway factories, unpaid wages, and unpaid worker’s compensation claims are not new. Local governments could take preventive measures, such as requiring investors to post a bond or contribute to a sinking fund, but they are in competition with each other for investment and therefore reluctant to impose additional responsibilities. So long as the local population is benefiting from investment, and local workers are being paid, migrant workers are not a priority. The experience of Bangladesh presents an interesting contrast. After catastrophic accidents and pressure from EU retailers, an organized effort to compensate injured workers or surviving family members has been implemented.
Hilary, thank you for your comment. I agree that the phenomena of unpaid wages, worker’s compensation claims and runaway factories is not new, but it is a positive development. The other positive development is that central leadership is speaking out about these issues. In the Central Political Legal Conference that just occurred, for example, one of the policies pushed is “believing in law, not petitioning”, funneling cases that can be dealt with through litigation into the courts.
Susan, Can you change “is” to “are” in the first sentence of my post? Thanks,Hilary