The issue focused on legal rights and privacy laws in China, where Chinese law enforcement officers can legally monitor citizens' Internet activity without court orders.

That legislation has since been amended to prohibit courts from examining criminal records or illegal financial transactions of individuals outside the judicial system. But lawyers say such statutes would allow prosecutors to prosecute personal relations between political parties and civil servants for crimes against public order.

One lawyer said court rulings barring prosecution of economic crimes were unlawful because those prosecutions only sought information about criminal activities that might