Courts try to improve efficiency

Pilot projects aim to move minor criminal cases through system quickly

China's top court is drafting a guideline to speed up cases involving minor crimes to improve efficiency and make better use of resources, a senior judge said.

Misdemeanors have piled up since a number of offenses that used to be punished in the laojiao system, or re-education through labor, were written into the Criminal Law, said a senior judge of the Supreme People's Court, who requested anonymity.