BEIJING - Enforcement of court orders has enabled 520 billion yuan ($78.5 billion) in defaults to be repaid across China in the first half of 2018, a 44.06 percent rise year on year, the Supreme People's Court announced Tuesday.

Courts nationwide handled nearly 4.1 million cases and completed the enforcement of over 2.8 million cases during the six months, the top court said.

As of June 30 this year, more than 168,400 items, including houses and cars, involved in such cases had been sold via an online judicial auction network that began in March 2017, amounting to a total of nearly 378 billion yuan.

Chinese courts have blacklisted a total of 11.23 million credit defaulters from October 2013 to June 30, this year, and 2.8 million people have fulfilled legal obligations under the intensified punishment.

Credit defaulters were forced to repay 2.83 trillion yuan under court order enforcement in 2016 and 2017.