Beijing Orders Courts to Stop Redacting Judicial Identities in Online Rulings
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China’s highest court has ordered local jurisdictions to stop redacting the names of judges and case numbers from online legal archives, intervening after a wave of secrecy made it increasingly difficult to track rulings in the world’s second-largest economy.
Documents listing judges, assistants, and clerks simply as “XXX” — or “Chen XXX” and “Li XXX” — alongside redacted case numbers have proliferated recently, sparking a domestic backlash over the opacity of a system that was once touted as a model of judicial transparency.
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- China’s Supreme People’s Court ordered local courts to stop redacting judges’ names and case numbers after public backlash over reduced transparency.
- Annual rulings published online plunged from 19.2 million (2020) to about 5.1 million (2023), with 160 million total documents as of Jan. 7, 2026.
- Experts warn concealing judicial identities undermines legal openness and the purpose of the public rulings database.
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Who’s Who
- Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm
- Tang Ming, a partner at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm and former judge at the Beijing High Court, critically assessed the recent redactions in online legal archives. He emphasized that concealing case numbers and judges' names hinders traceability and undermines consistent rulings, ultimately weakening judicial openness despite potential aims to protect judges.
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What Happened When
- 2013：
- China Judgments Online was launched, marking a significant achievement in legal reform and providing unprecedented public access to millions of court verdicts.
- 2013：
- Regulations were enacted authorizing redactions only for specific sensitive categories such as cases involving minors, state secrets, or private family disputes.
- 2016：
- Further regulations regarding redactions in court documents were authorized, again limiting redactions to specific sensitive categories.
- 2020：
- China Judgments Online published 19.2 million documents this year.
- 2022：
- Annual publication volume on China Judgments Online dropped to 10.4 million documents.
- 2023：
- The practice of 'burying names and concealing surnames' of judicial personnel on Chinese legal judgments began gaining traction.
- Late 2023：
- The annual number of publicly released court documents dropped to approximately 5.1 million on China Judgments Online.
- Late 2023：
- Concerns peaked after reports surfaced that the Supreme People’s Court was developing a separate internal court database for staff use, while the volume of public data declined.
- Jan. 7, 2026：
- A Caixin review found widespread redactions of judges' names and case numbers as standard practice in multiple regions across China.
- Evening of Jan. 7, 2026：
- An official from China’s Supreme People’s Court publicly declared the redaction of judicial officers’ names and case numbers improper and ordered immediate correction.
- As of Jan. 7, 2026：
- China Judgments Online had published a cumulative 160 million documents, with 71,000 documents added on that specific day.
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