Recently, the High People’s Court of Guangdong Province posted the progress of the 2021 election for “The Most Beautiful People’s Tribunal” and “The Most Beautiful grassroots Judge”.Jing Wen,head of Zhanjiang Tribunal of GZMC, had won the election.   Since 2005, when Jing Wen joined GZMC, she had been working in maritime tribunals of GZMC and staying on the frontline of maritime trial. “We should let the people see that justice is served in every case tried by using our honest, fair and righteous attitude, Not only the party winning the lawsuit has to be satisfied, But also the one who loses ” had always been her motto. Jing Wen had won the satisfaction and compliment from the people, by promoting clean government and being dedicated to her job.    

For the purpose of going further on making efforts to serve the people, responding actively to people’s attention paid to enforcement cases, and further enhancing people’s sense of benefit for maritime enforcement, according to the requirement and arrangement of the Supreme People’s Court of P.R.C and Guangdong High People’s Court, Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) had held an event of focused issuance of executed money. The event had issued 15 sums of money, and the total amount was over 24 million CNY. 3 applicants picked up their issued money at GZMC in-person, while 12 crews applied and drew their issued amount through online video chat due to the reason of still being on-board and pandemic prevention and control policy. Starting from this year, GZMC had achieved the completion of enforcement worth more than 300 million CNY, and the in-place enforcement proportion of first enforcement cases was 22.03%, ranked fifth among all courts in Guangdong province. The proportion of cases that the enforcees had money or property for enforcement concluded by statutory time limit for concluding trials was 98%, ranked second among all courts in the province. The qualified rate of the execution measures of  ending this executive procedureis 100%.The completion rate of execution items within the entrusted period is 100% .The execution of enforcement measurements was completed in good condition. Currently, GZMC has fully implemented management system for executed money, and uses exclusive serial number for each case. The automatic matching rate for executed money is therefore higher than the average of the province, which has provided a solid base for executed money to be issued on time, safely and efficiently.

  In order to enhance clerks’ sense of identity, sense of belonging and sense of honor for Guangzhou Maritime Court, and get further understanding about their working and living condition, Zongwen Zhao had arranged a training session on behalf of the Party Branch of Enforcement Department for four clerks in the morning of November 8th, 2021. The theme of the training was further communication and comprehensive capability improvement.   The contents for improving comprehensive capability were delivered by Zhao using his personal experiences. Zhao pointed out that young clerks should first, reinforce the learning of ideological theories, be firm in their political stance, and stay loyal to their political conviction. Second, they should follow the rules, be open to the teams and dedicated to their jobs, and provide various ancillary services with devoted attitude. Third, clerks should keep on learning both their professional knowledges and other comprehensive professions. They should adjust and improve themselves from time to time in their work. By learning from other colleagues and drawing lessons from the past, clerks should enhance their comprehensive quality from all aspects. Forth, clerks should have a practical attitude toward the gap between ideality and reality. They should be dedicated to their jobs and be down-to-earth when having their goals set high. Finally, Zhao ended the session by quoting chairman Jinping Xi’s quote: “The shine of youth comes out from grinding, and the sublimation of life comes from fighting.”  

  In the morning of November 10th, 2021, the Level IV Division Rank Official of the Regulation Division, Chaojie Fu, and the Marine Safety Investigating Officer of the Maritime Traffic Division of Shantou MSA, Shaozhong Guo, came to Shantou Maritime Tribunal and communicated about some universal law issues encountered in maritime work. The two institutions had an in-depth exchange of views about recognition of administrative counterpart of a maritime administrative action, evidence collection in maritime accident investigation, and delivery of maritime administrative punishment. Ruiqiu Song had provided professional insights and suggestions to each of the issue mentioned above.   In order to maintain maritime traffic safety and promote administration by law, both institutions had come to an agreement that it’s necessary to build and integrate platforms by using the Party Branch’s force to enhance working communication, and have discussions about related ship collision cases starting from the date when the cases were concluded and the judgement became effective.  

  In the afternoon of November 5th, the 2021 Guangdong Maritime Trial Working Conference was held in Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC). The executive vice-president and the Deputy Secretary of the Leading Party  Members’ Group of the High People’s Court of Guangdong Province, Zhong Jianping attended the conference and gave a speech. The president and the Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group of GZMC, Chen Chao, spoke on the conference. The working conference was presided by the vice-president and member of the Leading Party Members’ Group of GZMC, Wang Yufei. There were over 60 attendants, including judges and judge assistants from GZMC and  Guangdong High People’s Court.      Vice-president Zhong Jianping mentioned in his speech that judges and judge teams working in maritime trials should stay loyal to their political conviction, be responsible and against corruption, and ensure the purity of judicial process. Zhong also mentioned that the efficiency and quality of maritime trial case handling should be improved, and there should be more attention paid in research and case analysis. In conclusion, the efforts mentioned above should be made in order to better complete the maritime trial works for Guangdong province in the new era.      Chao pointed out that doing a good job in maritime trial is both meaningful and honorable. GZMC should take this conference as an opportunity and play its role of handling foreign-related maritime cases to the largest extent. It should also take solid steps to implement strategies that do ensure and improve maritime trial quality, and make further efforts to unify the standards of judgement. GZMC should provide guarantee and high-quality judicial service for building the Greater Bay Area.     The Deputy Chief Judge of the Forth Civil Division of Guangdong High People’s Court, Rao Qing, reported the information about maritime trials in Guangdong High People’s Court in 2020. Among the 196 closed, second-instance maritime cases, 22 were changed from their original judgements, and 2 were remanded for retrial. The rate of judgement amendment or retrial was 12.2%. According to the 2020 case handling overview, first-instance maritime cases were handled with better quality, and the rate of judgement amendment or retrial had been kept on a relatively low level. The statistics conveyed that the working strategy of maritime trial communication developed by the courts of Guangdong at two levels had achieved significant improvement in unifying standards of maritime judgement and improving the maritime trial quality of Guangdong province. The Head of Adjudication Management Office, Liang Zhanxin, the Deputy Chief Judge of the Forth Civil Division, Gu Enzhen, and the judge of the Case-filing Division of Guangdong High People’s Court, Wang Xiaoqin, gave a lecture about their methods and experiences of writing issuance of judgement and case analysis. Judges and judge assistants discussed complicated issues such as law application for sea towage contract dispute.

  In order to enhance the clerks’ comprehensive quality and improve their ability to perform duties, and the work in Law Enforcement Division can thereby be completed more efficiently, GZMC held a training class on Oct. 30, 2021. GZMC clerks took the class in full attendance. The class was introduced to the clerks by Head of Political Department, Qing Dong, who brought up specific requirements including enhancing one’s political stance, being firm in political conviction and dedicated to one’s work, as well as increasing incorruptible conscious. The class was taught by concentrated lectures. Based firmly on the actual situation of clerks’ working condition, we invited Head of Research Office, Xuewei Ni, Head of Discipline and Supervision Department, Xiaochun Wang, the leader of the financial group of General Office, Tong Peng, to give lectures about the requirements of general quality for clerks, rules and regulations about combating corruption and promoting clean government, and financial works in the court, etc. We also invited senior clerks from our court, Huifen Zeng and Haoyan Shen, to share their experiences of working as court clerks for years, and some case analysis. All attendees had learned the working contents and specific requirement one more time. The group had acquired deeper understanding about more specific details of different working contents in case-filing, trial and enforcement divisions.  

  The inauguration was held by Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) and Jiangmen Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) on October 26, 2021. Liu Sibin, Vice President of GZMC, and Shao Guo, Director of Jiangmen MSA, signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on Legal Service of Water Traffic Safety. According to the memorandum, both sides will develop deeper cooperation in cultivating talents of maritime investigation, making lists of maritime accident investigation experts, and conducting maritime inquiry training, as well as online mediation, investigation and evidence collection, affirmation of ownership of ships, litigation preservation, etc. The foundation of this Center is another joint effort of maritime trial and law enforcement departments to provide better legal service. They have been working together constantly, taking full advantages of their separate expertise and resources. The Center will serve as a convenient point of contact for water traffic related corporations and practitioners to access legal public service and enhance legal consciousness so that disputes can be resolved rapidly before litigation, and social conflicts can be reduced. Liu says the opening of this Center has added a new channel for dispute resolution and has provided new opportunities and experience for the building of maritime legal service platforms that cover coastal and riverside regions in Guangdong. Lai Jiaoming, Deputy Secretary of Jiangmen Politics and Law Committee, describes this cooperation between maritime trial and law enforcement departments as "a living example of 'I do practical things for the masses'". He says "it puts the principles of 'high efficiency, quality and convenience' into practice and raises our awareness of serving the public."  

  Recently, the case-filing division of GZMC received an application for preservation of maritime evidence on a Cyprus ship named M/V PANAMAX AUSTRASIA, due to a general average dispute. The claimant, as the domestic consignee of the cargo carried by the ship, was requested to contribute the loss caused by a grounding accident during the voyage by the ship owner. In order to preserve the evidence relevant to the accident, the claimant filed the application above.   After examining the materials, the case-filing division accepted the application and made an order to adopt measures for preservation of the maritime evidence on September 29, 2021. During the execution of the order, the ship owner stated that they needed time to prepare paperwork. Since the ship planed to depart after unloading the goods during the National Day’s holiday, the owner requested the court to check the evidence to be preserved before its departure. Considering that shipment delay will cause great loss, the staff of case-filing division decided to execute the preservation by giving up their National Day’s holiday. After communicating back and forth, the attorney of the ship owner submitted available evidence to GZMC. However, Clerk Wei Zheng and Xiaotong Zhu figured out that the evidence submitted was not satisfied to the preservation order. They declared the seriousness of the issue to the ship owner and instructed him to abide by the order. After communicating with the ship owner and his Britain lawyer by the attorney, the captain of the ship submitted the evidence met with the request of the preservation order in the next day.   Led by the vice president Jinbiao Deng, the case-filing judge group cautiously examined the evidence list and checked the original files as well as the case description. After hours of examination, the evidence preservation was completed. GZMC connected with Dongguan Maritime Department to release the ship. In the end, GZMC succeeded in the proceedings of evidence gathering, examination and releasing before the scheduled departure time of the ship, which avoided potential great loss to the foreign ship owner.  

  On October 2nd, 2021, with assistance of Shenzhen Tribunal, Zhanjiang Tribunal of GZMC had completed the mission of releasing M/V CSSC YUAN JING during the National Day’s holiday.   In the evening of September 28th, Qingdao Bohai Agricultural Development Co., Ltd, stating itself as the holder of original bill of lading, suffering severe damage to and shortage of soybean cargo, applied for the arrest of M/V CSSC YUAN JING and requested the shipowner or the bareboat charterer of the ship to provide 65 million CNY as security. After careful examination, Judge Deng Feifei and Clerk Li Boman of Zhanjiang Tribunal filed the case immediately and finished related paperwork on the same day night. Early in the next morning, Deng and Clerk Zheng Liping notified maritime safety administration, immigration inspection, and marine shipping agency. In the evening of September 30th, the maritime claimant submitted another application for decreasing the amount of security to 30 million CNY. The request had been approved by Zhanjiang Tribunal and the ruling was sent to the claimant and respondent on the very same day night.   On October 1st, the respondent notified Judge Deng it would like to provide security, with the type being guarantee issued by Ping An Insurance company, Shenzhen branch. In order to shorten the guarantee mailing time and to speed up the ship’s release, Deng suggested the respondent to submit the original guarantee files to Shenzhen Tribunal for review. On October 2nd, Judge Lin Yiyi of Shenzhen Tribunal, received the orginal guarantee from the insurer, sent through express mailing from the third party. Lin did an inquiry into the insurance company’s mailing process which included ordering, sending the file and delivery. In order to ensure the source and authenticity of the guarantee, writing notes from the delivery man and video record from the transactor of the insurance company were also gathered as evidence. After confirming GZMC had received the original guarantee, Zhanjiang Tribunal rendered a ruling to release the ship immediately.  

Guangzhou Maritime Court of the People's Republic of China Auction Notice Case File No.（2021）YUE72CAIBAO29th In accordance with the effective civilverdict, the Court has launched the second public auction procedure of MV ANGELICPOWER, owned by ANGELIKI DYNAMIS INVESTMENT CORPORATION. The announcement is asfollows: 1. TheLot MV ANGELIC POWER, a marine vessel berthed atGuishan Anchorage. The ship's particulars, including basic information andrelevant reports are listed or enclosed in the auction website. 2.Auction Method The Court has founded a ship auctioncommittee by law to execute the e-bidding procedure run on the Taobao judicialauction platform. You can find the platform URL by logging in the website ofGuangzhou Maritime Court. 3. Qualificationfor a Bidder Any natural persons, legal persons or otherorganizations with full capacity for civil acts are allowed to participate. A bidder without a Taobao account canentrust another person with such an account and full capacity for civil acts tobid on behalf of the consignor. Under such circumstance, the bidder isrequested to submit a power of attorney bearing the bidder’s signature or seal tothe Court three working days before the auction begins. The bidder or consigneeshould go to the Court to sign a letter of confirmation for conclusion and handlethe delivery procedures after the auction is completed. But the bidding actswill be deemed taken by the consignee rather than the consignor in the lack of POApaperwork. If an unqualified bidder bids, the biddershall bear the related legal responsibility. 4. AuctionTime Form 10:00 am, Oct 10, 2021 to 10:00 am, Oct11, 2021. The auction has a time extending mechanism, which means it will add 5minutes automatically if there comes out a higher price offer in the last 5minutes till the auction ends. 5. BiddingRules The starting price is 64 million yuan with adeposit of 6 million yuan or 1 million US dollars, and each price offer is 20,000yuan or its integer multiples higher. The deposit can be paid in US dollars butit shall be successfully transferred to the designated USD account below withinfive days before the auction begins. Meanwhile the USD transaction receipt shallbe faxed to +86（20）89441831. If only one bidder offers no less than the starting price,the deal is concluded. Before the auction, Taobao will freezebidders’ Alipay accounts as deposits, and the accounts will be automaticallyunfrozen if their bids are not concluded. And the deposits are interest exemptboth in the Alipay accounts and the designated USD account. The Vendee’sdeposit will be automatically transferred to the Court’s designated accounts andthe balance must be paid to the accounts within seven working days when theauction time ends. Additionally, please leave a remark of remainder of （2021）YUE72CAIBAO29th. Designated CNY Account: Beneficiary: 广州海事法院 Bank: 中国建设银行广州新港路支行 Account Number: 44001430404053004769-0002 Designated USD Account: Beneficiary: 广州海事法院 Bank: 中国农业银行广州新滘支行 Account Number: 44048214040000136 If the winner pays the balance in USD, theamount will be calculated by the central parity rate of USD/CNY of the auctionclosing date announced by China Foreign Exchange Trade System (http://www.pbc.gov.cn/zhengcehuobisi/125207/125217/125925/index.html)on behalf of the People's Bank of China. All bidders should find out AuctionInstructions issued by the Court before the auction. 6. Consultancy & inspection The consulting and inspection hotlines listedbelow are available from now on. Any intended bidders are welcome to contactthe Court, and the inspection time and location will be arranged afterwards. 7. The ship’s particulars mentioned above areonly for reference, which means the Court shall not assume any liability fordefects or quality problems of the bidding object. Attention, the intendedbidders please survey the ship on site and those who fail to do so shall bedeemed to have recognized and accepted the status quo, and also be responsible forthe defects and quality problems. The ship will be delivered at the foresaid anchoragein the status quo, and the vendee should pay for the remained fuel oil settledat the market price in addition to the auction price. 8. The vendee in entitled to conduct ownership transfer registration procedureunder the guidance of competent authorities with the legal documents issued bythe Court, and shall bear all taxes, costs and potential fees. Attention, thebidding object is a foreign ship, please contact and consult the competentauthorities for more information. 9. Anyone having an interest in the biddingship, including the lawsuit parties, security right holders and the preemptiveright holders, can sign up for auction, and if not, please pay close attentionto it. If the ship’s preemptive right holders aren’t enrolled for bidding, thenthose holders will be regarded as having given up the priority. 10. The creditorsshall file applications to the Court to register their rights relating to thebidding ship as of Oct 24, 2021. Otherwise, the right tothe repayment of debt from the proceeds of the auction shall be deemed ashaving been waived. 11. Contact Information Creditors’ Rights Registration: 0086-020-34063863. Inspection:0086-020-80929079/80929039. Online Auction:0086-020-34063680/89104345. Supervision: 0086-020-34063810/89024639. Taobao Technical Support: 0086-4008222870. The Court’s Add: No.863, Nanzhou Road, HaizhuDistrict, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China. Official Website: http://www.gzhsfy.gov.cn/ E-mail: pm@gzhsfy.gov.cn       September 28, 2021