[JURIST] The president of China's Supreme People's Court [official website, in Chinese], Wang Shengjun [official profile, in Chinese], called Wednesday for increased efforts to fight corruption [Xinhua report] in the country's court system. While Shengjun noted that progress has been made, he said that efforts must continue to establish a system to prevent and punish instances of corruption in the courts. Chinese courts are under the control of the Communist Party of China (CPC) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], which announced plans [JURIST report] in January to increase its oversight of the families of government officials to control corruption. The SPC also recently announced new anti-corruption regulations [Xinhua report; JURIST report] in an effort to increase public confidence in the rule of law.

Wang'g statements come two weeks after former SPC vice president Huang Sonyou was convicted [JURIST report] on bribery and embezzlement charges. Huang is the highest-ranking judge to be charged with corruption since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Between 2005 and 2008, Huang allegedly embezzled 3.9 million yuan (about $574,000 USD) while serving as vice president of the SPC. He also allegedly embezzled 1.2 million yuan (about $175,000 USD) while serving as president of the Intermediate People's Court of Zhanjiang in 1997.