Judiciary throws support behind economy

Top judicial officials vowed yesterday to safeguard the mainland's economy, with figures showing a sharp rise in contractual disputes, bankruptcies and forced liquidations last year.

In their annual reports to the National People's Congress, the officials also vowed to step up work to protect state security, maintain social stability and battle corruption, against a background of rising social conflict and concerns over the spread of anti-government protests from the Arab world.

Economic problems were given rare prominence in the report by the Supreme People's Court yesterday. Court president Wang Shengjun emphasised the need to strengthen the judiciary's capacity to rule on a 'new category' of cases such as bankruptcies, corporate restructuring, unpaid debts, protection of workers' rights in failed corporations, and disputes involving different financial instruments.

'Impacted by the global financial crisis and changes in the macro-economic environment, a lot of corporations have lapsed into difficulty ... legal problems are intertwined with social problems, and all kinds of conflicts have arisen,' Wang said.

'We must properly resolve the problems of employee settlement, and the protection of debtors, in order to safeguard our market order.'

Last year, the courts concluded about 580,000 financial disputes, 11.6 per cent more than in 2009, while the number of people charged with commercial crimes rose 19.5 per cent.