The justice bureau of the Conghua district of Guangzhou, capital of South Chinas's Guangdong province, has been striving for high-quality development of law-based governance to achieve a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). 

Overall planning on law-based governance 

Efforts were made to improve the rule of law working mechanism. The fourth meeting of the district commission for overall law-based governance under Conghua CPC district committee was held. An action plan was made for work in 2021. 

Propelling the construction of a law-based government

Since Sept 15, 2021, all townships in Conghua have started unified comprehensive administrative law enforcement. A coordination mechanism was established to give unified training, guidance and supervision on law enforcement work in the district. 

Efforts were made to strengthen and standardize the legitimacy reviews of matters submitted to the district government for deliberation or major administrative decisions. Eleven legitimacy reviews have been conducted in 2021 so far. The district's 36 law enforcement departments have all registered on Guangdong's administrative law enforcement information publicity platform. Thirty-five law enforcement departments are equipped with 2,609 recorders for law enforcement. 

The reform over administrative reconsideration system has been implemented all-round. As of Aug 31 this year, 87 applications for administrative reconsideration had been received, a year-on-year increase of 163 percent. All applications were accepted with 67 of them concluded. Among them, 16 cases were closed through reconciliation and mediation, accounting for 23.8 percent of the total. 

Intensifying law popularization

Conghua justice authorities have carried out a series of law popularization and education activities. New media technology has been used to disseminate knowledge of the Constitution and the Civil Code. The work has brought Conghua honors at both the national and provincial levels. Xitang and Xihe villages have become demonstration villages for democracy and rule of law. 

Strengthening modernization of grassroots governance systems and capacity

Efforts were made to improve the diversified dispute resolution mechanism by tamping resolution platforms and building professional mediation organizations. From January to August 2021, Conghua carried out 317 investigations of disputes, investigated 1,078 cases, and successfully resolved 1,068 cases or a resolution rate of 99.07 percent. A total of 70.27 million yuan ($10.87 million) in economic losses was retrieved from the resolution work. 

Enhancing public legal service capacity

Efforts were made in platform construction and offering more convenient services. A tiered network of one district level legal service center, eight township level and 277 village level public legal service stations was established. From January through August this year, the district public legal service center had accepted 921 legal aid cases and provided 2,640 legal consultations. 

At the service center and stations, all-in-one service machines are available for use. Mini-apps were introduced to provide legal aid, mediation, and certification services. 

Reinforcing ideological and political construction

Party history learning and the education and rectification of the political and legal team have been solidly carried out via various activities, such as seminars, workshops and field visits.