China will steadfastly promote comprehensive judicial reform -- focusing on judicial accountability -- and promise people they will “feel the justice and fairness in every judicial case” said the head of China's top court at a national meeting on July 20.

Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, made the remarks while attending a national forum of high court presidents in Changchun, capital of northeastern China's Jilin province.

Zhou called for deeper understanding of the speech made by Meng Jianzhu, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee. He also urged vigorous pursuit of the rule of law with Chinese features.

A major pilot reform, centered on judicial accountability, is smoothly underway in 693 courts throughout China, said Zhou, adding that high courts in the seven provinces and municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Jilin, Hubei, Guangdong, Hainan and Qinghai had confirmed the quota of judges by the end of June, as had 95 intermediate courts and 469 courts at basic levels.

The quota of judges has been adjusted to improve the quality of case hearings, which is a key step of judicial reform targeted by the central leadership in 2013.

Eighty-five percent of the law staff are at work on specific files and a new form of judicial system, which emphasizes the accountability of lawyers for certain cases, is taking shape, according to Zhou.

Comprehensively promoting judicial accountability is the cornerstone of this new round of reform, said Zhou. It helps “to maximize the internal motivation of the reform.”