China advanced its efforts in public interest litigation and related legislation in 2024, Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Ying Yong said on Saturday.
Procuratorial organs nationwide strengthened their work on public interest lawsuits in the past year, and filed and handled a total 151,000 public interest litigation cases, Ying said while delivering a report at the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature.
"In 2024, Chinese prosecutorial authorities worked to deepen public interest litigations, initiating and processing 151,000 cases of public interest litigations in the year. 2024 marked the 10th anniversary of the proposal to explore the establishment of the system of public interest litigations initiated by procuratorial organs, which was made at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Over the past decade, procuratorial organs across China have handled 1.117 million public interest litigation cases across 14 fields, worked with the NPC Standing Committee to advance legislation on public interest litigation, and worked to turn President Xi Jinping's thinking on the rule of law in the area of the public interest protection into legal rules as an original creation," he said.
The third session of the 14th NPC runs in Beijing from March 5 to 11.
Chinese prosecutorial authorities successfully work to advance public interest litigation: procurator-general
Commemorations honoring Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs were held on the banks of the Yalu River in Dandong, Liaoning Province on Tuesday as part of ongoing tributes to those who fought in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953).
The event was held to mark the return of the remains of 12 CPV martyrs, who were killed in the war, from the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Wednesday.
This will be the 13th such repatriation of CPV remains following the handover agreement between the two countries. Since 2014, the remains of 1,011 soldiers have been returned to China from the ROK, according to China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs.
More than 170 representatives, including veteran CPV soldiers, relatives of the martyrs, active-duty personnel, students, and other from various sectors of society, attended the event.
People boarded a ferry which slowly sailed down the Yalu River. Inside the cabin, all present stood in solemn silence as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China was played, and observed a moment of silence in honor of the CPV martyrs.
Then, they walked to the ship's railings one by one and scattered flower petals into the river to pay tribute to the martyrs.
"We, the CPV, went abroad to fight to defend our motherland, the people, and our good life and to resist U.S. imperialist aggression against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). I hope that our young comrades and students today will study hard and make contributions to our motherland," said Hu Changzhe, a CPV veteran.
"I feel deeply moved as these veteran soldiers are heroes who once fought for our country. Now, standing by the Yalu River, looking back on their past and remembering their comrades, they must be deeply touched," said Hong Jialu, a student at a branch of Liaoning Province Shiyan High School.
At the event, 10 student representatives from primary and middle schools read aloud a letter to express their reverence and remembrance for the heroic martyrs through their sincere words and heartfelt recitation.
The Korean War broke out in June 1950, eight months after the People's Republic of China was founded. At the request of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), China sent 2.9 million CPV soldiers to assist the DPRK during the war, of whom more than 360,000 were killed or injured.
Commemorations held to pay tribute to CPV heroes in northeast China
