On the morning of Mar.27^th, 2018, Guangzhou International Maritime Judicial Base of the Supreme People's Court(SPC) officially established at Guangzhou Maritime Court. Zhou Qiang, President of the SPC and He Zhongyou, Secretary of the Standing Committee and the Politics and Law Committee of Guangdong Municipal Committee, jointly inaugurated the Base. Liu Guixiang, Full-time Member of the Judicial Committee and Director of 1^st Circuit Court of the SPC, gave a speech. Gong Jiali, President of Guangdong Supreme People’s Court hosted the launching ceremony. Ye Liudong, President of Guangzhou Maritime Court declared for the establishment of the Base. Delegation members from Portuguese-speaking countries, also joint the unveiling ceremony and visited and base.

Li Shaoping and Tao Kaiyuan, Vice-presidents of the SPC, Cen Haohui, President of Court of Final Appeal of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Liu Xiaoyun, President of Shanghai Supreme People’s Court, Wu Xielin, President of Fujian Supreme People’s Court, Huang Hailong, President of the Supreme People’s Court of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region attended the ceremony.

Paul Sarnia, President of Supreme People’s Court of Guinea-Bissau, Andriano Manuel Mugabe, President of Supreme People’s Court of Mozambique, António Silva Henriques Gaspar, President of Supreme People’s Court of Portugal, Manuel Silva Gomez Gravide, President of Supreme People’s Court of The Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Christian Morales De Abriel Silva, Vice-president of Supreme People’s Court of Angola, Jahmi Maltese DE Oliveira, Chairman of Federal Judge Association of Brazil, Antoinette Tutu Mun Guruafana, Vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court of Equatorial Guinea attended the ceremony on invitation.

The establishment of Guangzhou International Maritime Judicial Base of the SPC will help to strengthen the communication between academics and practice in international maritime justice, and earn a wider recognition from foreign peers on the maritime justice of China, so as to further improve the international influence of maritime justice of China. The Base will present a good legal environment by holding high-level, professional international maritime justice seminar and related training regularly or irregularly, to further improve the international influence of maritime justice of China, which has important significance to the promotion of building China into an international maritime judicial center. Holding maritime case research and publicity irregularly through the platform of Guangzhou International Maritime Judicial Base of the Supreme People's Court to present China’s maritime judicial experience, could help raising the voice and improving the influence of China in the international maritime judicial rule making.

President Ye said, under the joint effort of the Supreme People’s Court, Guangdong Supreme People’s Court and Guangzhou Maritime Court, Guangzhou International Maritime Judicial Base of the Supreme People's Court will become a world-leading maritime judicial academic platform, so as to provide great safeguard in maritime judicial for developing marine economy, protecting marine environment and maintaining international shipping order.