As the capital city marches towards becoming an international metropolis, the police, courts and prosecutorial system are being re-organized to cut staff, improve efficiency and produce results.

Qin Zheng'an, president of the Beijing Municipal High People's Court, told the congress that Beijing's courts had 41.1 per cent fewer unsettled cases at the end of last year, despite having to deal with a record number of 218,467 in the period.

The quick and effective reactions of local prosecutors to big cases last year -- such as the corruption case of Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress -- proved the success of the reforms, said Xu Haifeng, Beijing's leading public prosecutor.

One of the most important reforms involved replacing the former promotion system, where public prosecutors and officials were pushed up the career ladder on the recommendations of their superiors, with self-recommendations and public debates about advancement.

Altogether, 387 officials have been promoted to be division heads in this way.

The proportion of division heads who have received a college education at the very least in Beijing increased from 52.3 per cent to 72.3 per cent last year.

Qin said this was especially important in a city endeavouring to build itself up as the country's leading knowledge economy.

Beijing's courts are also equipping themselves with more advanced technology to help deal with "even more modern technical cases" -- for instance those involving intellectual property disputes.

According to Qin, Beijing's courts have attached great importance to solving such cases. He said Beijing was the first city in the country to produce its own guides and rules in solving the new legal problems.

Last year, 891 intellectual property cases were closed, 46.5 per cent more than the previous year.

The local Public Security Bureau announced the number of solved criminal cases was also up by 4.3 percentage points.

The year 2001 is critical for the city with its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Qiang Wei, director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, promised the city's social order would be vastly improved.

Beijing would spread and finalize a community security mechanism with various public security branches closely co-operating with neighbourhood committees to leave as few loopholes as possible for criminals, he said.

(China Daily 02/08/2001)