Restrictions tightened on debtors' spending; many can afford to pay restitution, official says

Chinese courts must improve their handling of financial defaults and individual debtors in the face of a skyrocketing case load over the past three years, an official of the top court said on Wednesday.

The number of cases in which defendants refused to execute verdicts increased from 3.4 million in 2013 to 4.8 million in 2015.

"The problem of some litigants escaping enforcement by transferring or hiding properties is still serious," said Liu Guixiang, director of the Law Enforcement Department of the Supreme People's Court.

To effectively protect the rights of plaintiffs and ensure judicial credibility, the top court set up a website to trace defaulters and urged lower courts to engage in enforcement by disclosing information such as name, workplace and home address.

Information on more than 3.08 million defaulters has been released so far, Liu said.

Defaulters are also named in a blacklist that prevents them from applying for credit cards and loans. It urges them to carry out verdicts requiring restitution.

In the last three years, 4.25 billion yuan ($700 million) in 146,000 cases has been repaid, and more than 36.3 billion yuan held by defaulters has been frozen, according to data from the top court.

The blacklist has blocked defaulters from buying airline tickets about 3.76 million times and restricted their travel by high-speed rail or first-class sections of ships and ordinary trains 598,880 times.

"Under credit pressure, about 20 percent of defaulters have repaid or carried out a court's judgment," Liu said.

In addition, in July the top court extended restrictions to purchases of luxury items in a bid to accelerate enforcement and further tighten the consumption of defaulters.

On Monday, Beijing's Chaoyang District People's Court sent restriction orders to 269 departments, including Ctrip, a leading online travel service provider based in Shanghai, hoping for help in curtailing defaulters' online consumption.

The court named Zhang Xing, a singer, who refused to pay 820,000 yuan in line with a contract signed with a resident surnamed Li in the capital. Now Zhang's house has been seized and his name is on the blacklist.

Liu called upon all courts to make full use of the blacklist and Internet technology, and to "make the process of verdict enforcement more transparent".

Liu Honghui, a Beijing lawyer, applauded the restriction on defaulters' luxury consumption online, saying that they can afford to pay their debts if they can afford to buy high-priced items on the Internet.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 01/07/2016 page4)