III. Efficient Enforcement

Leveraging on technologies such as big data, cloud computing and AI, the people's courts attempt to transform the enforcement model from scattered and offline to intensive and online, and realize a string of functions including online process management and control, online search for properties and persons, online joint punishment and online remote command. The close integration of informatization with enforcement is mainly reflected in the development and application of the online enforcement investigation and control system and the case process node system, as well as the setup of the joint punishment mechanism.

i. Online investigation and control makes enforcement faster and more efficient

As far as enforcement is concerned, the search for properties and persons is critical. Traditionally, if a court wanted to check the properties of the person subject to enforcement, it, in addition to visiting the person, also had to go to relevant units such as financial institutions, and vehicle management units, which was time-and energy-consuming and also inefficient. The difficulty in locating the person subject to enforcement and in investigating his properties is a main factor that impedes enforcement. To solve this problem, a breakthrough must be made in locating the person and his properties first, and a powerful investigation and control system with IT means must be built. Enforcement informatization started with the online investigation and control of properties of the person subject to enforcement, for which local courts and relevant units worked together to set up the “point-to-point” online investigation and control system for enforcement. On December 24, 2014, the Supreme People's Court officially launched the “headquarter-to-headquarter” online investigation and control system, breaking the spatial limitation of property investigation and control, and expanding the network to the whole country. The “headquarter-to-headquarter” online system covers courts of four levels, and 195 million entries of inquiries had been made accumulatively as of the end of December 2016.

ii. Node management sets standards for enforcement

In practice, passive, selective and irregular enforcement by the people's courts is another major factor that makes enforcement difficult. To basically solve this problem, regulating the exercise of enforcement power is crucial. Apart from institutional regulation, the exercise of enforcement power should also be regulated with IT means. We need to put cases in the process management system, compress the room of discretion for enforcement staff, and publicize enforcement information online to the largest scope, so as to realize transparent enforcement. We should also promote online judicial auction and expose key links of enforcement to reduce under-the-table operation and rentseeking of power. At present, the Supreme People's Court has developed the case process node management system; local courts are using their own case handling platforms, and there are also platforms for enforcement information disclosure and online judicial auction. All of them are aimed to regulate the enforcement power, cut the interest chain and eradicate the room for rentseeking with technical approaches.

The case process node management system of national courts sets 37 nodes, including case registration, case distribution, enforcement notice, online investigation and control, initiation of traditional investigation and control, completion of traditional investigation and control, discussion about “end this enforcement”, and enforcement clues. This system implements an elaborate enforcement deadline management, replaces leader's supervision over node control with system tracking, and therefore effectively regulates passive, selective and irregular enforcement. As of the end of December 2016, the system was up and running in people's courts of 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, covering 95% of the courts in 30 provinces and undertaking cases in 98% of all the courts.

iii. Joint punishment adds deterrence to enforcement

A mature and well-developed social credit system is an effective mechanism that helps overcome enforcement difficulties. The third plenary session of the 18thCCCPC clearly proposed to “promote information sharing among departments, and establish and improve a social credit system to commend honesty and punish dishonesty”. The fourth plenary session of the 18th CCCPC stressed “accelerating the establishment of the legal system of credit supervision, deterrence and punishment for persons who refuse to perform the court award”. To deter the person subject to enforcement and urge him or her to proactively perform his or her obligations, the Supreme People's Court set up the system of publicizing the list of persons who refuse to perform the court award. On January 20, 2016, under the initiation of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Supreme People's Court, 44 units, including the People's Bank of China and the Organization Department and Publicity Department of CCCPC,jointly signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on Conducting Joint Punishment of Persons Who Refuse to Perform Court Award.As of October 31, 2016, the Supreme People's Court dovetailed data with 18 units, namely the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, people. cn, Baidu, Spring Airlines, People's Court Daily, All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, China Railway, China TravelSky, Ministry of Public Security, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Credit Reference Center of the People's Bank of China, China Bohai Bank, China UnionPay, Agricultural Development Bank of China, Alibaba Group, China Guangfa Bank and Tencent. In September 2016, the General Office of CCCPC and General Office of the State Council printed and distributed the Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of Credit Supervision, Warning and Punishment Mechanism Against Persons Who Refuse to Perform Court Award. Centered on the task of establishing and improving the joint punishment mechanism, the Opinions rolled out 37 specific punitive measures under 11 categories based on systematic, IT-based and technical means, and created a situation where both the symptoms and root causes of enforcement difficulties could be overcome by applying overall governance. As of the end of December 2016, courts across China had publicized 6.42 million pieces of information about people who refused to perform court award accumulatively on shixin.court.gov.cn, the website that discloses enforcement information.