Strengthen agriculture-related procuratorial work to provide rule-of-law safeguards for accelerating agricultural modernization
The issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers have always been fundamental issues concerning the overall situation of our Party and country, and are the top priority of the whole Party's work. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out profoundly: For China to be strong, agriculture must be strong; for China to be prosperous, farmers must be prosperous; for China to be beautiful, rural areas must be beautiful. The Central Rural Work Conference held at the end of last year and this year's No. 1 Central Document made special arrangements for relying on reform and innovation to advance agricultural modernization, and set new and higher requirements for procuratorial organs to give play to their functions and serve and safeguard the work related to “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”.
Serving “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” is the duty and mission of procuratorial organs
In recent years, the central government has introduced a series of effective and popular policies related to “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”, which have effectively mobilized farmers' enthusiasm and strongly promoted agricultural and rural development. But it must be noted that at the current stage, China's agricultural and rural development faces many problems, including resource shortages, excessive development, worsening pollution, and relatively weak rule-of-law development in rural areas. Enhancing the capacity for sustainable agricultural development, accelerating the pace of new socialist countryside construction, and ensuring farmers a happy life remain arduous tasks. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, agriculture is still the short leg in the “synchronization of the four modernizations”, and rural areas are still the weak link in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. How to continue strengthening the foundational position of agriculture and promote sustained increases in farmers' incomes against the backdrop of the current economic slowdown is a major issue that must be solved.
Serving the overall work of the Party and the state is where the duty of procuratorial organs lies. In recent years, procuratorial organs at all levels have always taken serving “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” as an important part of serving the overall situation and safeguarding people's livelihood. Closely focusing on key and hot areas of rural reform and development, they have organized special investigations and prosecutions of agriculture-related duty-related crimes, strengthened legal supervision over agriculture-related litigation activities, and resolutely cracked down on criminal activities that infringe on farmers' rights and interests, endanger agricultural development, and affect rural stability, achieving positive results. Procuratorial organs across the country must, from the strategic height of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and accelerating socialist modernization, further deeply understand the new situation facing the work related to “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”, deeply grasp the central government's new arrangements and new requirements for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” work in the new period, base themselves on the function of legal supervision, accurately identify the focus and entry points, attach greater importance to doing agriculture-related procuratorial work well, actively promote rural social governance and rule-of-law development, and strive to provide strong rule-of-law safeguards for agricultural modernization and the building of a new socialist countryside.
Strictly investigate corruption crimes around farmers
In recent years, agriculture and rural areas have always been a priority area for fiscal expenditure at all levels, and the state's investment in “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” has grown steadily. This year's No. 1 Central Document highlighted the need to effectively strengthen supervision of agriculture-related funds, establish standardized and transparent management systems, eliminate all forms of misappropriation, interception at each level, and fraudulent claims, and ensure that the use of funds produces real results. Investigating and handling duty-related crimes occurring around farmers is an important focus of agriculture-related procuratorial work and an important aspect of safeguarding farmers' lawful rights and interests and maintaining rural harmony and stability. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has twice deployed special work on investigating and handling agriculture-related duty-related crimes. Procuratorial organs across the country handle on average more than 10,000 duty-related crime cases involving township stations and rural Party branch and village committee cadres each year, accounting for about one-fifth of the total number of duty-related crime cases. Particular attention should be paid to cases in 5 areas.
Pay close attention to duty-related crimes by “village officials”. At present, although grassroots Party conduct and clean government construction has improved markedly compared with the past, there are still many problems of discipline violations, law violations, and infringement of the masses' rights and interests. Some deliberately create difficulties and demand bribes, some make fraudulent claims and favor relatives and friends, some embezzle and misappropriate and distribute funds indiscriminately, some privately run enterprises and aggressively rake in money, and some collude and act in cahoots with underworld and evil forces. These are the problems farmers detest and hate most. In particular, in some places duty-related crimes by “village officials”, especially village Party branch secretaries and village committee directors, are relatively prominent, and farmers have strong reactions.
Pay close attention to duty-related crimes in fiscal subsidies supporting agriculture and benefiting farmers. To promote agricultural development and increase farmers' incomes, central and local governments at all levels implement a series of fiscal subsidies for farmers' production and life, which farmers call “heart-warming money” and “warm-hearted money”. However, some grassroots cadres use the power in their hands in links such as application and review, fund management, and project acceptance for farmers' various subsidy funds and special funds for poverty alleviation, disaster relief, diagnosis and treatment of children with AIDS, training of migrant workers, and agricultural policy insurance, and either “pluck a feather from every goose that passes” by embezzling, misappropriating, and privately dividing funds, or neglect their duties and violate regulations in handling matters, causing subsidy funds to leak away and triggering public dissatisfaction.
Pay close attention to duty-related crimes in rural infrastructure construction. In recent years, governments at all levels have vigorously implemented projects for rural drinking water safety, rural power grid upgrading, and rural dilapidated housing renovation, as well as village-to-village projects for rural roads, radio and television, and communications. Rural infrastructure construction projects are numerous, and duty-related crimes are prone to occur and frequently occur in links such as bidding and tendering, fund management, and quality supervision.
Pay close attention to duty-related crimes in the field of rural social undertakings. To solve the problem of lagging development of social undertakings such as rural education, culture, medical and health care, and social security, the Party and government have successively introduced policies benefiting the people, such as rural minimum living allowances, the new rural cooperative medical system, critical illness insurance, and basic old-age insurance. These all involve the interests that farmers care about most, that are most direct and most realistic. Many people report that some grassroots cadres use their authority to conceal information from superiors, deceive subordinates, and enrich themselves.
Pay close attention to cases such as vote-buying and disrupting elections. Elections of rural “two committees” and grassroots people's congress deputies are directly related to the country's grassroots governance and to whether grassroots political power is stable. In some places, the problems of vote-buying and disrupting elections are relatively prominent. Some openly send money and goods and canvass votes for bribes, some use violence or threats of violence, and some use clan forces, religious forces, or even underworld and evil forces to intervene in and manipulate elections. A small number of grassroots cadres fail to perform their duties according to law, neglect their duties, and even participate in vote-buying or accept money and goods.
Corruption problems occurring around farmers not only directly infringe on farmers' interests, but also seriously damage Party-mass and cadre-mass relations, and can easily trigger instability. Procuratorial organs at all levels must resolutely implement the central government's arrangements and requirements, uphold the principle that corruption must be opposed, greed must be punished, and cases must be handled, persist in cracking down on both “tigers” and “flies”, continuously maintain a high-pressure posture of punishing agriculture-related corruption crimes, and promote the implementation of all policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers. It is necessary to carefully analyze the characteristics and patterns of agriculture-related duty-related crimes, strengthen research on preventive countermeasures, and promote townships and villages to improve management systems and plug loopholes.
Actively participate in rural social governance
Rural stability and order are the basic expectation of farmers for a better life and the premise and foundation for doing “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” work well. At present, China's urban-rural interest pattern is undergoing profound adjustment, the rural social structure is undergoing profound change, and farmers' ideas and concepts are undergoing profound change. Under the new situation, the tasks of strengthening and innovating rural social governance and maintaining rural social stability are very heavy. Procuratorial organs, especially grassroots procuratorates, must fully give play to procuratorial functions, actively participate in rural social governance, and promote improvement of the level of rule of law at the rural grassroots level.
Crack down on crimes according to law and maintain rural social security and stability. At present, there are still many illegal and criminal activities in some rural areas, and some new development trends have emerged. For example, underworld and evil forces occasionally operate in rural areas. Some “town bullies” and “village bullies” use clan forces, feudal superstition, and other means to run rampant in villages, prey on the people, and delude the public, seriously affecting farmers' sense of security. Another example is that counterfeiting and infringement crimes tend to concentrate in rural areas. Some unscrupulous merchants manufacture and sell fake seeds, fake chemical fertilizers, fake pesticides, and counterfeit and inferior agricultural machinery products, and some sell inferior food and medicines in rural areas. Another example is that illegal pyramid schemes, fund-raising fraud, and telecom fraud are relatively prominent in rural areas. Procuratorial organs at all levels must fully perform the functions of approving arrests and prosecutions, focusing on punishing various crimes that disrupt rural production and living order and endanger farmers' lives and property. It is necessary to strengthen analysis of the rural social security situation, grasp the characteristics and patterns of agriculture-related criminal crimes, and carry out concentrated rectification of prominent public security problems.
Safeguard the lawful rights and interests of left-behind children, left-behind women, and left-behind elderly people. In recent years, as urbanization has accelerated, more and more people have gone to cities to work, and many rural areas have seen village hollowing-out and farmer aging. According to estimates, rural left-behind children have exceeded 60 million, left-behind women have reached 47 million, and left-behind elderly people number about 50 million. From the case-handling situation of procuratorial organs, because left-behind groups have relatively weak self-defense capabilities, they are often likely to become key targets of infringement, especially crimes of sexual assault, indecent assault, and trafficking of left-behind women and children. Procuratorial organs must both severely punish relevant crimes according to law and carry out activities such as bringing law into rural areas and schools, strengthen rule-of-law publicity and education for rural left-behind groups, promote enhancement of their self-protection awareness, and at the same time urge relevant departments to improve the care service system for rural left-behind groups.
Resolve rural social conflicts according to law. At present, rural interest subjects are becoming increasingly diverse, and various demands have increased markedly. In particular, social conflicts triggered by land requisition, housing demolition, and other matters are diverse and frequent. Procuratorial organs at all levels must adhere to rule-of-law thinking and rule-of-law methods and do a good job in resolving agriculture-related conflicts and disputes in the procuratorial process. It is necessary to guide and support farmers in safeguarding their rights through lawful channels and expressing demands rationally. It is necessary to uphold and carry forward the Fengqiao experience, fully give play to the role of dispatched procuratorial offices, and make the greatest efforts to resolve conflicts on the spot.
Increase judicial protection of the ecological environment
Agriculture and rural areas are the main link connecting humans and nature. Strengthening rural ecological environmental protection is not only related to the vital interests of farmers, but also to the well-being of people across the country and the sustainable development of the entire country. At present, problems such as over-cultivation and overgrazing, indiscriminate logging, indiscriminate discharge, and soil erosion remain prominent in some rural areas. Agricultural resources and the environment have already shown a red light, seriously endangering agricultural development and the quality and safety of agricultural products. General Secretary Xi Jinping especially stressed that in building a new countryside, attention must be paid to ecological environmental protection. This year's No. 1 Central Document also made special arrangements for strengthening agricultural ecological governance and comprehensively advancing the improvement of rural human settlements, requiring serious investigation and handling of various acts damaging the ecological environment in accordance with laws and regulations.
Procuratorial organs at all levels must, from the height of safeguarding national ecological security and the happy life of the people, earnestly implement the requirement of using strict legal systems to protect the ecological environment, fully perform procuratorial functions, effectively constrain development behavior, and promote green development, circular development, and low-carbon development. In particular, it is necessary to increase the punishment of crimes damaging the ecological environment in rural areas, and punish according to law frequent criminal offenses that damage resources and the environment, such as illegal logging and excessive felling of trees, illegal mining, illegal sand mining, and covert discharge. It is necessary to apply the concept of restorative justice and explore ways such as requiring criminal suspects to stop infringement, remove obstacles, restore the original state, or repair the environment and compensate for losses according to law, so as to reduce the degree of resource damage and environmental pollution damage. It is necessary to promote governance of key areas damaging the ecological environment, such as ecologically fragile areas, groundwater funnel areas, soil heavy metal pollution areas, and agricultural non-point source pollution areas, and promote solutions to prominent problems damaging farmers' health. It is necessary to focus on investigating and handling duty-related crimes in fields such as the project of returning farmland to forest and grassland, key soil and water conservation projects, major forestry ecological projects, and rural drinking water safety, sewage treatment, domestic waste treatment, and restoration of polluted cultivated land and water sources, and promote the implementation of agricultural ecological governance and comprehensive improvement of the rural environment. At the same time, where administrative organs are found in the performance of duties to have illegally exercised or failed to exercise their authority in the field of rural ecological environmental protection, explore ways such as urging prosecution and filing public interest litigation to urge them to perform their duties according to law and promote improvement of the rural ecological environment supervision system.
Safeguard rural reform and development according to law
The central government has repeatedly stressed that in comprehensively deepening reform, rural reform must be placed in a prominent position. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference and the Central Rural Work Conference all made important arrangements for comprehensively deepening rural reform. Procuratorial organs at all levels must give targeted play to procuratorial functions, both supporting reform and encouraging innovation according to law, and resolutely safeguarding farmers' lawful rights and interests. In particular, it is necessary to punish according to law crimes such as illegal occupation of agricultural land and destruction of cultivated land, prevent enclosing land for non-agricultural construction in the name of agriculture, resolutely hold the red line of cultivated land, and safeguard the lawful advancement of pilot rural land system reform; punish according to law duty-related crimes in fields such as rural land expropriation, market entry of collective operational construction land, transfer of land contractual management rights, and reform of the rural collective property rights system, and prevent erosion of farmers' interests; properly handle according to law civil and administrative appeal cases involving farmers' homestead rights and interests, land transfer, development of large-scale operations, forest rights reform, and rural financial services, and strengthen judicial protection of rural collective asset ownership, farmers' land contractual management rights, and farmers' property rights; increase efforts to crack down on financial crimes such as illegal absorption of public deposits and fund-raising fraud, and safeguard the smooth advancement of rural financial reform; and explore ways such as supporting litigation to strengthen judicial protection of the lawful rights and interests of migrant workers in cities.