The Hague, 19 November 2012

Good afternoon everyone.

Many of you know that China has not ratified the Rome Statute. But are you aware that China has been supporting international criminal justice since 1945 when the Chinese Judge MEI Ruao together with the other ten judges of Tokyo International Military Tribunal tried those most responsible for crime against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the territories of far east countries including China during the Second World War. And between 1945 and 1947, more than 2,000 Japanese war criminals were also tried at domestic courts in ten cities of China including Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou etc. Additional trials of 45 out of 1,062 Japanese war crime suspects took place in Shenyang and Taiyuan in 1956. They were convicted and sentenced to 8 to 20 years imprisonment.

When heinous crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia shocked the conscience of humanity in 1991, China voted in favor of the establishment of the ICTY in 1993. Since then, there has always been a Chinese judge sitting in an ICTY trial chamber or the Appeals Chamber of both the ICTY and the ICTR.

Although not an ICC State Party, China participated in the whole negotiation process of the Rome Statute and made valuable proposals. As an observer, China has also participated in the ICC Assembly of States Parties and the review conference of the Rome Statute. In addition, China has amended the Criminal Procedure Law lately to meet the international standards in criminal justice. For example, it provides that the authorities shall protect the rights of the defense and other procedural rights legally enjoyed by criminal suspects, defendants, and other participants in criminal procedures (Art. 14). A confession of a criminal suspect or defendant extorted by torture or obtained by other illegal means and a witness or victim statement obtained by violence, threat, or other illegal means shall be excluded (Art. 54). The authorities shall take measures to protect the witness, identified specialist, or victim or his or her close relatives in certain criminal proceedings (Art. 62). Eventually, with the international criminal justice movement, China has been improving the domestic standards in criminal justice, from which the Chinese people have benefited.

Futhermore, the Chinese scholars have never stopped conducting research on international criminal law. Research centers for international criminal law have been established at some universities including China University of Political Science and Law where I work. The ICC Trial Competition in the Chinese language has been organized twice and the third one is underway. There are international or national symposiums and seminars on international criminal law held or to be held in China every year. Numerous articles and books on different topics of international criminal law have been published. Unfortunately, most of the publications are in the Chinese language and many of the international lawyers do not read them. That is why the ideas and views of the Chinese scholars are rarely known to the world.

Today, we are very pleased to present the book entitled "State Sovereignty and International Criminal Law" in both English and Chinese versions. Among the ten chapters, seven are contributed by Chinese authors originally for the 2012 LI Haopei Lecture and Seminar. This is the first book of this kind which makes it possible to share the views and thoughts of the Chinese scholars with international criminal lawyers. I hope you will enjoy reading them, and we will continue to do this.

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank Professor Morten Bergsmo for his creative idea of having LI Haopei Lecture and Seminar Series to be held in China and other countries in order to worldwide disseminate international criminal law and to promote international criminal justice.

Thank you!