China does not rule out the adoption of Western practices in building its procuratorial system, a senior prosecutor said yesterday.

"The accuracy and efficiency of the Chinese procuratorial system, however, must be tested through the country's judicial practice, rather than judging it according to Western judicial concepts," Zhang Geng, executive deputy procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said.

"Western methods may be observed for reference purposes, but we cannot blindly duplicate and integrate Western judicial practice into our nation."

Zhang made the remarks at a procuratorial theory research forum held in the capital of Heilongjiang Province, attended by more than 100 respected law professors and high-level prosecutors from across the nation.

"We must do research and learn the useful aspects of the Western procuratorial system, bearing in mind that China's system has itself been introduced from abroad," Wang Shizhou, a professor at Peking University, said.

Tang Weijian, law professor at Renmin University of China, said Chinese procurators could benefit from their counterparts as regards safeguarding social justice and public interests.

Tang called on prosecutors to emphasize their role in public interests litigations.

For example, procuratorial organs, rather than consumers, should sue Nestle for marketing infant milk powder whose iodine content is in excess of the national 2005 standard.

"It is common practice for foreign procuratorial organs especially in continental legal systems to raise accusations in public interests litigations and Chinese prosecutors should also shoulder this responsibility to maintain public interests," Tang said. Zhang said the Chinese system of legal supervision is now recognized to a far larger extent within theoretical and practical institution circles at home and abroad.

He called on experts in both circles to combine forces in carrying out research and earning recognition in order to consolidate the constitutional status of Chinese procuratorial organs.

Historical Chinese legal supervision should also be emphasized in the course of research into the Western procuratorial system.

"We need to study the evolution of the legal cultural tradition from ancient China through to the founding of New China, and especially since 1978," Zhang said.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of China's procuratorial system, first established upon the founding of New China in 1949 and suspended during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

It was not until 1978 that the third Constitution of the Republic of China granted restoration of the people's procuratorates.

The Constitution endows independent constitutional status on procuratorial organs comparable to that of the Supreme People's Court and the State Council, all of which are subordinate to the National People's Congress, the supreme organ of state power.

(China Daily July 31, 2008)