BEIJING - China will reform its petition system and authorities must respond to and terminate cases within the legal framework, according to a key policy document of the Communist Party of China (CPC) published Friday.

Petitioning, also known as letters and calls, is the administrative system for hearing public complaints and grievances. People who are not satisfied with government decisions can request reexamination of their matters. But after reexamination and review, matters are closed.

The termination procedure was sometimes abused by local authorities, resulting in inappropriate settlements of cases. This led to public anger.

As part of the reform, a system will be set up so that authorities must abide by the law to terminate cases, according to the CPC's decision.

The decision was approved at the the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

The country will set up a system for online petitioning and strive to settle people's cases timely and at local level, the decision said.