The difficulty in getting state compensation isn't one of lack of public funds. According to Zhang Yue, Director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance allocates 20 million yuan ($3 million) annually to the Central Government as compensation fund, but the fund is seldom put into use.

Steps forward

In addition to the lack of payouts, another bone of contention in the state compensation system has been the amount of compensation received. According to the current State Compensation Law, the daily compensation for violation of personal freedom is just the average daily wage of a worker. That means if an innocent citizen is put in prison for a day, he could only get a day's wage as compensation.

Shi Yansheng, a railway worker from Harbin, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. His family members, including his mother, were also put in prison for the crime of covering up offenses. He was later found not guilty after spending 5,101 days in prison, but the family only received around 6,000 yuan ($875) in compensation. Their freedom was effectively worth little more than 1 yuan a day.

"In fact, China now has the ability to raise the compensation standard. With the development of the economy in recent years, the financial condition of the government at different levels has seen a rapid improvement," said Ma.

He added that one day's wage for one day of incarceration isn't consistent with the definition of compensation. The standard should be at least double that, he said.

A new compensation standard has yet to be revealed. It is certain to rise, but probably not as much as many expect.

Complicated application procedures are another failure of the State Compensation Law. According to the current law, a government body should admit that it has violated a victim's rights before they can apply for state compensation. This process, according to some experts, is just like "asking a tiger for its skin."

This link will be cancelled in the revised draft. According to the new law, government bodies should decide within two weeks after the application is raised. If they do not, the victim has the right to go directly to the court to apply for state compensation.

Even after a victim succeeds in applying for compensation, it can take a long time to receive the money due to the complicated procedure.

The revised draft regulates that government bodies should apply to the financial fund within seven days of a victim winning compensation, and the financial department should pay the compensation within 15 days of the application.

The revised State Compensation Law includes spiritual damage within its scope for the first time. According to Ma, spiritual damage involves the violation of personal freedom and reputation, among other things.

The revised draft regulates that the victims should get compensation for spiritual damage, but it doesn't set a clear standard for calculating the compensation.

Future problems

The revised draft has made some positive changes in compensation procedure and standards, but there is still a long way to go.

According to Liu Zhixin, Director of the Compensation Committee Office of the Supreme People's Court, at present, the compensation committees of all courts are comprised of heads of different chambers, who are also in charge of other business of the courts. Therefore, it is the office of the compensation committee, which was set up initially as an administrative department, which truly deals with compensation cases. It is necessary to set up a chamber in the court specifically to deal with state compensation, he added.

Other experts have suggested setting up a state compensation committee independently from the courts.

Ma wants to see the scope of state compensation enlarged to include all the administrative actions of government bodies and civil servants.