Zhao Zuohai, a 57-year-old farmer from Henan Province, was released on May 9 after being wrongly jailed for 11 years for a murder that didn't even happen. Two police officers who tortured a confession out of him were arrested recently, and a third officer is still at large. The following is an interview between the Qiangguo Forum of people.com.cn (PO) and Qu Xuewu (Qu), a researcher at the Institute of Legal Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on the deficiencies of China's legal system. PO: What needs to be changed in China's legal system? Qu: The first thing that must be changed is police culture. Torture during interrogation has been a part of Chinese legal culture for thousands of years, andwow power leveling, it's important to reshape the police culture to eradicate this. Public security organs often consider the discovery and confirmation of crime as their top task. They neglect the idea that they also have to guarantee the suspects' basic human rights. Whether humanity is more important than wow power leveling efficiency is a controversial topic among criminal law experts. Some say that efficiency should be prioritized, because only through promptly solving cases can the police crack down on crime and human rights actually be protected. I think world of warcraft power leveling, there is bias here, however. From my perspective, human rights don't merely mean protecting the interests of the majority. Any individual, whether he is a suspect or a criminal, has the right to personal dignity and security. China has done far from enough to guarantee these. Many police officers tend to believe that world of warcraft power leveling a suspect or a defendant is automatically a bad person who deserves no humanity. We have to change this stereotype. We also need to weigh procedural justice and substantive justice - the right to a fair investigation and trial, versus an actual outcome where the guilty are punished. Sometimes police officers feel overworked, and so use whatever means they want to achieve their goals. In doing so, they are actually prioritizing substantive justice over procedural justice. However, the latter is very important to avoid people being falsely accused or wrongly convicted, because in that case no concept of justice is served at all. The second problem is that our entire legal culture also needs reform. We still don't have a people-orientated concept of law. We are building a better nation and a better society to provide individuals with maximum freedom, maximum realization of their personal values flyff money, and maximum protection of human rights. Therefore, punishment, as a form of public power flyff money, shouldn't be excessively used at the price of sacrificing citizens' freedom, rights and realization of their personal values. I've come to value the thought of British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) that moderate laws can make national life more humane and help its government win respect from the citizens. Qu: China signed up to the United Nations Convention Against Torture early in 1988. However, to guarantee the convention is actually enforced, we must reform the way cases are handled. The police, procuratorial organs (the equivalent of public prosecutors in the West), and wedding dresses, courts do not adequately supervise each other during the process of investigation and trial. The reward and punishment mechanisms for police officers wedding dresses also needs reform. Currently, there is a common tacit rule that murder cases must be cracked, otherwise the police officers in charge will be punished. But actually some murder cases are unsolvable. It's not enough to rely on moral and cultural measures to curb torture. China should establish an anti-torture committee, directly responsible to the National People's Congress, to supervise and check the practice of public power. Public prosecutors should periodically report to the committee their investigation of police officers extorting confessions by torture. The Criminal Law needs to flyff gold, be further reformed too. For instance, Article 47 stipulates that extorting confessions by torture is not allowed. But the law doesn't stipulate that evidence acquired through torture is not admissible. PO: Police officers are sometimes under great pressure from their superiors flyff gold, who require that a case must be cracked within seven days. Is it hard for them to avoid using torture during investigation in such circumstance? Qu: I'm not a police officer, so I can't completely stand in their shoes. But I think we have to be practical about these things, rather than come at them from the perspective that hard work can achieve anything. It's like the Stakhanovite work slogans of the past, when we had slogans like "Where there is human will, there is a farm harvest." It's the same logic as the seven-day rule, but the truth is that sometimes all the will and hard work in the world won't achieve something. In this case, sometimes it's impossible to solve every case no matter how great the efforts the police make, so requiring them to do so within seven days is simply unrealistic and impracticable. My suggestion is that police officers in charge of a specific case should tell their superiors whenever this is an unreasonable requirement. The most important thing is to promote reform throughout the system, both from the top down and bottom up. If a police officer obeys his leader's requirement to crack a case within seven days, and thus tortures a confession out of a suspect, then both the police officer and his leader ought to be held responsible. PO: Over the past year, we've witnessed cases in which suspects or criminals died, according to the local police, of "playing hide and seek," "taking a shower," or "drinking cold water." Can China strengthen third-party mechanisms to restrain law enforcers, like recording, videotaping and supervision during the entire process? Qu: Today we sometimes practice the recording aion kina, and videotaping of investigations. But the Zhao Zuohai case took place 11 years ago. At that time, there were probably no such internal rules requiring recording or videotaping. But even today, we don't practice recording and aion kina videotaping of the entire handling of a case. It's also very hard to know whether a tape records the entire process or not. Therefore, both internal and external supervision should be further strengthened. The further reform of our criminal investigation is also related to China's economic development. As the country becomes richer and more powerful, China's abilities and resources to carry out criminal investigations are becoming stronger too. PO: How should victims of torture by police officers protect their legal rights and interests? Qu: In light of current mechanisms, it's very hard for suspects to protect their rights and interests. In some foreign countries, a suspect has the right to keep silent. But in China, suspects are repeatedly told that if they confess they'll get a lighter sentence. It's hard to completely and comprehensively ensure suspects' right to keep silence in China. But I think at least we can begin to allow lawyers, who are currently only allowed to play a consultative function, to join the investigation as representatives of the defendants. Suspects need lawyers to collect the evidence that can lead to acquittal or a lighter sentence. The suspects themselves are detained, and it's hard for them to protect their rights and interests themselves. They need external help, and we must change the system to allow this.