BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top court on Friday issued a set of judicial guidelines for the implementation of the Private Sector Promotion Law, including a strict "entry-unless-prohibited" approach and efforts to regulate monopoly and unfair competition, to better ensure the healthy development of the country's private sector.
The guidelines include detailed rules for courts' judicial and adjudication work in relevant areas, designed to tackle practical issues and ensure the law is applied properly and consistently, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said in a statement.
The rules comprise 25 articles covering overall requirements and judicial work related to equal treatment of relevant entities, guiding the private sector's lawful operations, ensuring strict and impartial justice, and advancing improvements to build a fair judicial system, according to the SPC.
The top court said that efforts will be made to ensure equal protection for private enterprises to boost their confidence. This includes measures to guarantee fair market competition, help private businesses expand financing channels, tackle their issues like delayed payments, safeguard technological innovations, and promote the sound and orderly development of emerging industries.
The guidelines also emphasize cracking down on corruption and other criminal activities within private enterprises, while encouraging them to maintain strong internal governance.
To stabilize expectations in the private sector, the SPC pledged strict and impartial justice. The guidelines call for stronger legal protection of property rights, proper handling of assets in related cases, rectification of enterprise-related miscarriages of justice, and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of private businesses and business owners.
The guidelines urge courts to enhance litigation services to reduce costs for private businesses when resolving disputes and seeking remedies.
The guidelines also stipulate better support to help private businesses expand safely overseas and to boost efficiency in foreign-related adjudication.
China's top legislature adopted the country's first fundamental law dedicated to promoting the private sector in April, with the law taking effect on May 20.
The law was applied for the first time by the administrative division of the SPC in the trial of a case involving a real estate developer based in Nanyang of central China's Henan Province and local authorities.
In 2006, the company signed a contract with the local government for the transfer of state-owned land use rights. When residents blocked the project over low land acquisition compensation, the government proposed that the company pay additional compensation in exchange for policy concessions and extra land.
The company complied in 2011, resolving the dispute and completing the project, but the promised compensation from the government was never delivered in full. The firm later sued for 16.58 million yuan (about 2.32 million U.S. dollars) in advanced compensation payments and other related costs. In 2020, municipal and provincial people's courts rejected the claim on two occasions, prompting the company to seek a retrial at the SPC.
By that time, things had changed as the Private Sector Promotion Law had taken effect, requiring local governments to honor policy commitments and contracts with private businesses, and prohibiting them from breaking those commitments on grounds such as administrative restructuring, leadership changes, institutional adjustments or personnel turnover.
The law also states that if policy commitments or contractual terms must be changed in light of national or public interests, changes must follow legal procedures, and private businesses must be compensated for resulting losses.
Based on the law, the SPC overturned the first and second instance rulings in late May, ordering the local government to pay half of the 16.82 million yuan in losses involved in the case to the company within 15 days of the judgment taking effect.
According to the SPC judge who presided over the case, although the government made efforts to fulfill its administrative promises, it failed to actively consult and communicate with the company when those commitments proved impossible to meet in practice, and it should bear corresponding responsibility in accordance with relevant laws.
The government's failure to fulfill its administrative commitments had also been related to changes the company made to its development plan, as well as poor communication between the two sides, so both parties were found to be at fault, the judge said.
"The operation and growth of private enterprises can't be separated from the support of local governments. Only when government departments perform their duties in accordance with the law and keep their promises can they give us confidence and reassurance," a company representative said. ■
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