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This special series features the city's most important annual political conferences, Lianghui, or Two Sessions, which runs from January 26 to 31.

Throughout the week, Andy Boreham from Shanghai Daily gives you a multimedia roundup of what Lianghui is all about and what's going on during the event.

Today we will take a look at the two annual reports from Shanghai Higher People's Court and Shanghai People's Procuratorate. How many criminal, civil and financial cases have they dealt with in the past year? How many corrupt officials have been caught? Let’s find out!

What happened in 2018?

In 2018, all of Shanghai's courts together dealt with 798,000 cases, 99.5% — or 794,000 cases — of which have concluded. Each judge dealt with 265 cases on average.

Among the criminal cases


  • Violent crimes: 652

    These cases like eight types, including murder, robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking and arson.

  • Mafia-style gang crime cases: 46

    Such cases included blackmail, unlawful detention and casino operation.

  • Corruption cases: 180

    Bribery, embezzlement and dereliction of duty were among the corruption cases dealt with. A total of 246 people were sentenced, 7 of whom were bureau-level officials or above.

*The courts also dealt with 175 food safety cases and 32 illegal loan shark cases.

Among the business cases

44,000

Free trade zone related

3,332

Foreign individuals or entities involved

497

Bankruptcy and liquidation

21,000

Intellectual property right related

CIIE

Shanghai Financial Court

On August 20 last year, Shanghai opened China's first court specializing in financial cases, Shanghai Financial Court, as the city strives to become a global financial center. By year's end, it had dealt with 1,897 cases, with a total contract value of 25.2 billion yuan.

Word on the street:
What are people concerned about?

In this section, our reporters interviewed some pedestrians on Shanghai's streets and asked what issues they are concerned most about regarding the city. Let's see what they said.

VOICES AT THE SESSIONS

Wu Qianjin

Wu Qianjin

Deputy to Shanghai People's Congress

Moral lessons won't be as effective as heavier punishments for pet owners who fail to properly raise their pets for the safety of other people. Punishments should be raised to get the attention of rule-dismissing pet owners, and the regulations should include more criminal instances.

Wang Rulu

Wang Rulu

CPPCC member

The hotel industry has become an important part of tourism service and hygiene is one of the basics that a hotel should provide. The city should take the lead in legislating on higher hygiene standards and more effective punishment measures for unsatisfactory hotel services.

Xu Bin

Xu Bin

Deputy to Shanghai People's Congress

A preferential real estate property loan rate should be offered for young professionals working in science and technology as top professionals are indispensable in helping the city increase its competitiveness. Currently in Shanghai, those who purchase their first apartments are required to make a down payment of at least 35 percent, which makes it impossible for many young professionals to settle in the city, even a few years into working here.

What's Lianghui in Andy's eyes?

Day six, the last day of this year's Two Sessions, gave us an insight into the work of Shanghai's courts, and what they dealt with and achieved in 2018. The 21,000 intellectual property cases settled — a rise of 46.3 percent over 2017 — is a great sign that the city is taking IP seriously, and will no doubt be a welcome development for the international community keen to do business and innovate here. I was also impressed to see that 100% of debts ordered to be settled by the courts were repaid thanks to the enforcement of 43 restrictions placed on those who skirt responsibility and avoid their debts. New Zealand needs tough consequences like that!

That's it for this year's Lianghui Moments folks! I've had a fun and enlightening time keeping you all up-to-date with the important info, and I look forward to doing it all again next year. Happy New Year!

  • Product Manager: Shen Ke
  • Developer: Zhang Rui
  • Art Director: Chen Jie
  • Visualization: Shen Xinyi
  • Journalists: Chen Huizhi, Ke Jiayun, Yang Meiping, Zhu Shenshen, Wang Yanlin, Xu Lingchao, Huang Yixuan, Wang Xinzhou, Hu Shuangying
  • Photographers: Dong Jun, Jiang Xiaowei, Zhou Shengjie
  • Voiceover / Copy Editor: Andy Boreham