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Foreigners receiving more legal support

The majority of legal aid services are offered to foreign defendants in criminal cases, Sun said.

Li Xuelian, another official with the legal aid department at the Ministry of Justice, said that they have set up a database of 200,000 qualified volunteer lawyers who can offer free legal help. About a third of these lawyers can communicate in English, Li said.

For non-English speakers, legal aid authorities in a number of cities, such as Guangzhou and Nanjing, have agreements with translation companies, Li said. The costs are borne by the government, he said.

Sun, from the ministry, acknowledged that there are many practical challenges to provide legal assistance to foreigners.

"Most of the foreign suspects don't trust Chinese lawyers and won't communicate with lawyers at the beginning," she said.

Moreover, legal aid authorities have difficulties in employing lawyers to defend suspects who don't speak English.

The ministry plans to establish a talent pool of lawyers, and divide them into categories based on the languages they speak, Sun said.

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.