China to build international maritime judicial center

Beijing : Supreme People's Court (SPC) president Zhou Qiang on Sunday said China will built 'international maritime judicial centre' to help protect the country's sovereignty and rights at sea.

"(We) must resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty, maritime rights and other core interests. We must improve the work of maritime courts and build an international maritime judicial center," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Chief Justice Zhou Qiang, while presenting a report on the work of SPC at a plenary meeting of the national legislature, asserted that courts across China shall work to implement the national strategy of building the country into a maritime power.

Speaking before a crowd of 3,000 lawmakers, he said that last year around 16,000 maritime cases were concluded by Chinese courts, adding the country is also home to the largest number of maritime courts globally.

Around 2,25,000 cases involving over 70 countries and regions had been handled by China's maritime courts in three decades between 1984, when the first such court was set up.