Top court official pledges BRI judiciary cooperation

Chinese courts will improve judicial cooperation and exchanges with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to give stronger legal support to the building of a community with a shared future, according to Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, China's top court.

He made the remarks on Tuesday when attending the Maritime Silk Road International Forum on Judicial Cooperation, held by the top court in Quanzhou, Fujian province.

"We hope to deeply cooperate with countries involved in the initiative in judiciary, widely consolidate consensus and increase experience-sharing to ensure the initiative can be promoted in high quality and provide better legal services for building a community with a shared future," he said.

While highlighting the importance of rule of law in advancing the initiative, he noted every country is facing broad exchange prospects in various aspects, including fighting transnational crimes, solving cross-border trade disputes, deepening judicial assistance and strengthening judge training.

He regarded the forum as an opportunity to further promote the initiative, calling for involved countries to keep joint efforts in implementing multilateralism, increasing communication and taking a road with mutual benefits.

"We should also actively share judicial experience, building a fair and reasonable international maritime order and improving the establishment of a maritime community with a shared future," he added.

He said Chinese courts will continue upholding equal protection to litigants and market entities no matter where they are from, trying the best to maintain a fair, orderly, unified and open market competition.

Showing determination to increase cooperation on solving criminal cases with countries involved in the initiative, he said courts across China will intensify legal protection of the environment and give harsher punishments to polluters.

The way foreign litigants choose to solve their commercial disputes will be respected in Chinese courts as they always are, "and we'll strive to provide intelligent, accurate, highly-efficient and convenient legal services for litigants from home and abroad," he added.