China plans to set up an "international maritime judicial center" to help protect the country's sovereignty and rights at sea, its top judge said on Sunday.
Giving a work report at the annual meeting of China's largely rubber-stamp parliament, chief justice Zhou Qiang said courts across China were working to implement the national strategy of building China into a "maritime power".
"(We) must resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty, maritime rights and other core interests," he said. "(We) must improve the work of maritime courts and build an international maritime judicial center."
He gave no details. It is not clear when the judicial center may start working, where it would be located or what kinds of cases it would accept.
