The number of judges will increase by 10 percent in China over the next few years in an effort to make up the country's inadequate trial force, Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court, said Saturday.  

A national higher court presidents' meeting held in Beijing from December 16 to 18 released statistics showing that Chinese courts dealt with 8.08 million criminal, civil and administrative cases in 2003, 4.59 million more than in 1993.

The number and variety of cases have risen remarkably in China in recent years, but the number of judges and clerks remains unchanged, causing difficulties for courts to ensure timely trials.

Jiang Yunchang, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said yesterday that 12,782 judges and clerks will be recruited for local courts, especially for local courts at the grass-roots levels.

In a keynote speech to the meeting, Xiao Yang vowed to improve the country's judicial capacity to meet the requirements of economic development.

Xiao said judicial capacity mainly includes "striking hard" on severe criminal cases and cracking down on financial and economic fraud, intellectual property infringement, human rights violations in judicial fields and official power abuse.

China's per capita GDP exceeded US$1,000 last year. It is widely accepted that when a country's per capita GDP stands between US$1,000-3,000, it is likely to be in a transitional period featuring a variety of sharp social contradictions.

Xiao acknowledged that China was undergoing such a period now and that the number of court cases related to state-owned company reforms, salary in arrears, illegal land acquisition and illegal housebreaking, has risen dramatically.

"During such a period, the country needs judicial capacity improvement," he said. 

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2004)