A national database which will record all the country's court verdicts and their enforcement situation will go into operation on Jan. 1, 2007, to help ensure that court rulings are properly carried out.

Ni Shouming, spokesman of the Supreme People's Court, said on Monday that more than 2 million verdicts handed out by courts at all levels as well as their enforcement situation will be input into the national database every year.

The database is part of a national deterrent system in which public security authorities, industrial and commercial authorities, banks, exit and entry authorities and the real estate industry will jointly sanction those who seek to evade court verdicts.

Court verdicts in civil cases in China are poorly enforced.

Take the case of a farmer surnamed Wang. He was seriously injured in a coal mine accident and had to have a kidney removed in a surgical operation. He sued the coal mine owner for failing to provide safe working conditions and asked for compensation. The court decided in his favor, ordering the coal mine to compensate the injured farmer.

But the coal mine owner vanished into thin air. The farmer appeared in court 30 times asking for what was owed to him. But the court was unable to find the fugitive coal mine owner and the farmer received nothing. It is highly likely that the coal mine owner had set up a new operation elsewhere.

Under the new national deterrent system, those who seek to evade court verdicts will be unable to register a new company, seek bank loans, make investments or cross frontiers.

"The database will serve as an information platform for the national deterrent system. The database will make it easier to detect and punish those who seek to evade court rulings," said Ni.

Source: Xinhua