China's supreme court to cut red tape

BEIJING - China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) has axed 28 leading groups, or 65 percent of its total, as it ramps up efforts to cut red tape.

The SPC said in a statement Tuesday that 13 leading groups were retained and some leading groups were merged because of work needs.

The reshuffle of the SPC's leading groups came amid a broader campaign it launched recently to remove "mountains of paper work and seas of meetings".

Since current leaders were elected in 2012, the Communist Party of China has attacked the persistent problems of red tape, corruption and alienation of ordinary people by officials.