[JURIST] The Supreme People's Court [official website, in Mandarin] of China will take steps to eliminate judicial corruption, according to a report delivered Tuesday to second session of the Eleventh National People's Congress [official website] by Chief Justice Wang Shengjun [official profile, in Mandarin]. Wang reported that that 712 court officials were punished for misconduct in 2008 and that such corruption has negative social impacts [Xinhua report] and affects the credibility of the courts. He said that the Supreme People's Court would take measures to lessen such corruption with improved ethics education.

In October, the Chinese legislature removed the vice president of the Supreme People's Court [JURIST report] without explanation, although there were allegations of a scandal. In January 2007, the Communist Party of China (CPC) [official website] promised to confront government corruption after former Chief Justice Xiao Yang called for judicial reform [JURIST reports] to regain the public's trust. Several months later, Xiao Yang applauded the reform [JURIST report] that had been achieved.