Increasing legal cooperation between mainland, Taiwan

The number of cases handled under a cooperation between courts on the Chinese mainland and Taiwan has risen rapidly over the past five years, the Supreme People's Court said on Thursday.

The cooperation started in 2010, after which courts on each side have provided legal aid to the other, according to the top court.

When courts in Taiwan need legal help for such things as confirming a death or finding evidence on the mainland, they can contact the mainland's courts.

By May, 37,423 cases had been handled under the cooperation and the figure is still rising, said Sun Jungong, the top court's spokesman.

In most cases, courts in Taiwan sought help from mainland courts, Sun said, adding that mainland courts delivered judicial documents relating to an average of 6,000 cases to Taiwan each year.

He Zhonglin, director of the top court's office specializing in Taiwan cases, said the number of cases in which Taiwan courts help mainland legal authorities is also rising.

In 2013, mainland courts asked Taiwan courts to send them judicial documents relating to nearly 3,000 cases, He said, adding documents for only 85 cases were requested in 2010.

He believes the cooperation has increased the speed and accuracy of sharing judicial materials between the sides.

He said 67 percent of judicial documents requested from mainland courts were delivered successfully last year, "which was unimaginable five years ago".