With Chinese courts revising more than 1,300 criminal
decisions in 2014, the chief justice of the Supreme People’s Court, Zhou Qiang,
told the national legislature in March 2015, “With regard to wrongful
convictions, we feel a deep sense of self-blame and demand that courts at all
levels draw a profound lesson.”[1]
Six months earlier, President Xi Jinping had initiated legal reforms on the
premise that the Communist Party needed a “better-functioning” legal system in
order to be able to govern.[2]
The question is whether this push will come to anything substantial.
The full essay is at "Reforming Chinese Courts."
1. Josh
Chin, “Top Judge Apologizes for Wrongful Convictions,” The Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2015.
2. Ibid.
