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Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国最高人民检察院
Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó
Zuìgāo Rénmín Jiǎncháyuàn
Emblem of the Office of the People's Prosecutor General of the People's Republic of China
Agency overview
Formed27 September 1954; 70 years ago (1954-09-27)
Preceding agency
  • Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office
TypeChina's highest legal supervision agency
JurisdictionPeople's Republic of China
HeadquartersBeijing
Agency executives
  • Zhang Jun,
    Prosecutor-General of the SPP
  • Tong Jianming,
    Deputy Prosecutor-General
  • Sun Qian,
    Deputy Prosecutor-General
  • Zhang Xueqiao,
    Deputy Prosecutor-General
  • Chen Guoqing,
    Deputy Prosecutor-General
  • Yang Chunlei,
    Deputy Prosecutor-General
Parent agencyNational People's Congress
Websitehttp://www.spp.gov.cn/
The external gate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
Exterior view of the Supreme People's Procuratorate headquarters
The lobby of the main building of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
View of the Procuratorate Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate from the chair of Prosecutor-General Zhang Jun
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The Supreme People's Procuratorate, also translated as the "Prosecutor General's Office" (Chinese: 最高人民检察院; pinyin: Zuìgāo Rénmín Jiǎncháyuàn) is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation in the People's Republic of China. Except for cases investigated by the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR,[1] Hong Kong and Macau, as special administrative regions, have their own separate legal systems, based on common law traditions and Portuguese legal traditions respectively, and are out of the jurisdiction of the SPP. Its direct predecessor institution in China was the Procuratorial Office of the Supreme Court of the Republic of China, which in turn was descended from the Procuratorial Office of the Dali Yuan of the late Qing Dynasty.

Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was renamed the Supreme People's Procuratorate in 1954. The Procuratorate was abolished during the Cultural Revolution, before being re-instated in 1978. Between the 1990s to 2010s, the agency experienced a host of reforms pertaining to its selection of personnel and its internal organisation.

The primary role of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate is to ensure that all state agencies, officers and citizens abide by the law. The activities of the Procuratorate are overseen by the National People’s Congress. The agency also conducts legal investigations and prosecutes cases, as is typical of inquisitorial systems used in civil law jurisdictions. It also reviews the legal rulings of the local and special procuratorates and the lower people’s courts. As of March 2018, the Procuratorate no longer leads the investigation and prosecution of corruption within the Chinese Communist Party, being superseded in this role by the National Supervisory Commission.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate is organised into ten specialised prosecutor’s offices, which operate under the direction of a Procuratorial Committee. Led by a Prosecutor-General, the Procuratorate is also composed of several Deputy Prosecutors-General and additional prosecutors. The Prosecutor-General is appointed by the National People’s Congress, which also elects the other members of the Procuratorate at the Prosecutor-General’s recommendation. The current Prosecutor-General of the People's Republic of China is Zhang Jun.

History

Origins

The most rudimentary version of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate was established in September 1949 with the Organic Law of the Central People’s Government.[2] Initially titled the “People’s Prosecutor-General’s Office”, the Procuratorate was the first national agency tasked with the supervision of the law in the newly-founded People’s Republic of China.[2]

The responsibilities of the initial Procuratorate were further formalised in the 1951 Statutes.[2] As described by academics Ginsburgs and Stahnke, these functionalities encompassed:

  • Overseeing the abidance of the law by all individuals, public organisations and state agencies;
  • The investigation of individuals who breach the law or state interests;
  • The ability to reject judgements made by lower judicial bodies;
  • The supervision of legal abidance in the nation-wide prison system;
  • The ability to review and reopen cases dropped by lower procuratorates when petitioned;
  • Serving as a legal representative for the Party’s interests in civil and administrative lawsuits.[2]

Alongside these functions, the Procuratorate was able to prosecute anyone deemed suspicious and warranting investigation and could request information from other state organs to assist with the prosecutorial process.[2] The Procuratorate also had the ability to establish an office in each local government area to supervise and lead the judicial system in the locality.[2] However, the Procuratorate was largely inactive following its inception.[2] This changed in 1953 when investigation departments within the body were created.[2]

Rise and early years

In 1954, the People’s Prosecutor-General’s Office was renamed the “Supreme People’s Procuratorate” at the first session of the First National People's Congress.[3] The new Procuratorate was formally enacted in the 1954 State Constitution subsequently adopted by the Congress.[3] In this new iteration, the Procuratorate retained its legal supervisory role, possessing express jurisdiction over all government bodies, public functionaries and citizens of China, except the Central People’s Government who oversaw the agency's operation.[2]

Cultural Revolution

During the Cultural Revolution of 1966 – 1976, the people’s procuratorates lost favour as they were perceived as an interference to the socialist cause of the Chinese Communist Party.[4] Reflecting this sentiment, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate was abolished from the 1975 State Constitution alongside all other procuratorates.[4] Following its dissolution, the Procuratorate’s powers of legal supervision over the state and individuals were transferred to the police.[5][6][7] The Supreme People’s Procuratorate was subsequently re-established in 1978 via the reinstatement of the Organic Law of the People’s Procuratorates in the 1978 State Constitution. Its renewal served as a mechanism for the Party to oversee and prevent misconduct within the administration.[5]

In 1980, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate established a Special Procuratorate to investigate and prosecute the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing "counter-revolutionary cliques."[8] In a trial led by the serving Prosecutor-General Huang Huoqing, the group was found guilty of plotting a coup to overthrow the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution.[8]

Development and reform

In the 1990s, major reforms were made to the Chinese judicial system, including the people’s courts and procuratorates.[9] These changes occurred primarily in response to the economic reform of China as a socialist market economy, a development instigated by Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992.[9] In 1995, the Procurator’s Law was introduced to “professionalize the judicial personnel” via raising the standards by which procurators and other procuratorate personnel were selected.[9] Emphasis was placed on the selection of prosecutors and personnel based on merit, performance and experience in legal practice.[9]

Further reform of the Procuratorate accompanied the adoption of the “Implementing Opinions of the Three-Year Procuratorial Reform” in January 2000.[9] This reform affirmed the hierarchy of the procuratorates and formalised the role of the higher procuratorates supervising and directing procuratorates located beneath them.[9] Alongside the reform, a new training program for procurators was introduced from 2001-2005 to manage workforce performance within the Procuratorate.[9]

In December 2018, major alterations were made to the internal organisation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate through the restructuring of existing departments and the establishment of ten new prosecutor's offices.[10] Four of these offices were established to handle the prosecution of various types of criminal cases.[10] The remaining six departments oversee “civil, administrative, public interest and juvenile cases, complaints handling, and investigation into duty crimes committed by judicial personnel," respectively, as reported by Xinhua News Agency, China’s official state-run media agency.[10]

In November 2020, the Intellectual Property Prosecution Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate was established to handle the investigation and prosecution of intellectual property rights infringements.[11]

Anti-corruption enforcement

The involvement of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in the investigation and prosecution of corruption began in 1979 with the establishment of a specialised department for the investigation of economic crimes.[12] Further pressure from student activists and Party members alike in the early 1990s led to the people’s procuratorates developing more stringent procotols to manage corruption.[12] The Procuratorate’s involvement in anti-corruption enforcement expanded in 1995, with the introduction of three new departments to manage corruption: the Anti-Corruption and Bribery Bureau, the Corruption Prevention Department, and the Anti-Dereliction of Duty and Infringement of Citizens’ Rights Department.[13] However, the Procuratorate’s supervision of corruption was later streamlined by legislation from the National People’s Congress in late 2014, which resulted in the amalgamation of the agency’s three anti-corruption departments into a single anti-corruption authority.[12][13]

The management of corruption by the Chinese Communist Party was broadly transformed in 2018.[13] At the March meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress, a new anti-corruption agency titled the National Supervisory Commission was formally installed to consolidate the various anti-corruption authorities which existed under the Party, including those of the Procuratorate.[13][14] As a result, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate role in anti-corruption enforcement was greatly rescinded, as these responsibilities were directly transferred to the National Supervisory Commission.[13][14] The Procuratorate also saw its anti-corruption personnel similarly transitioned.[14]

Powers and jurisdiction

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate serves as the highest prosecutorial power in the People’s Republic of China, overseeing the nation’s local and special procuratorates.[6][12] As determined by the Organic Law, the primary function of the Procuratorate is to suppress illegal activities, particularly those which undermine the interests of China’s ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party.[6] The jurisdiction of the Procuratorate encompasses all cases related to criminal law, public and state security, people's courts, prisons, detention centres and labour institutions.[15]

The executive powers of the Procuratorate allow its investigations and prosecutions to be performed free from intervention by local and state bodies.[3] However, like the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate must report to the National People’s Congress, the highest state body in China.[16]

Prosecution and litigation

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate acts as a public prosecutor by handling both the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases in court,[6][17][9][18] thus functioning as a civil law inquisitorial system.[19] Such systems are also seen in Japan and Socialist legal systems.[19] The agency is constituted of four departments, which oversee “regular crimes, serious crimes, duty crimes, and new-type crimes," respectively.[10] Furthermore, the agency reviews and arbitrates on which criminal suspects should be investigated and which criminal cases should be taken to a public prosecution.[11][20] The Procuratorate also initiates public interest litigation.[20]

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate conducts reviews of rulings and investigations performed by local and special procuratorates.[21] Additionally, for all types of cases, the Procuratorate may protest any rulings of the lower people’s courts that it deems inappropriate or flawed by lodging a formal appeal with the Supreme People’s Court.[15][21][18] For civil and administrative cases, including intellectual property cases, this intervention mainly occurs after the court has handed down a legally binding and enforceable decision.[11] The Procuratorate may act in this manner by choice or when petitioned by a litigant involved in a given case.[11] The Procuratorate, either independently or in conjunction with the Supreme People’s Court, may also issue judicial interpretations, which are official and legally binding interpretations of the law.[21]

Supervision of the state

Between the 1980s to the early 2010s, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate investigated and prosecuted corruption and bribery through its anti-corruption departments.[14] The Supreme People’s Procuratorate also assisted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection with the prosecution of party members relegated to a form of extralegal detention known as Shuanggui.[21] Shuanggui is a procedure used to extract evidence and confessions from party members under investigation.[22] Material obtained using Shuanggui was passed onto the Procuratorate and used in the prosecution of party members.[22]

However, as of March 2018, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate no longer performs these responsibilities.[14][13] These powers have instead been assumed by the National Supervisory Commission, which campaigns against corruption in conjunction with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection – the anti-graft agency of the Chinese Communist Party.[14][13] Academic Tobias Smith suggests that these changes have reduced the overall power of the Procuratorate.[14]

Organisation

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate is led by a Procuratorial Committee, which oversees the operation of the Procuratorate under the direction of the Prosecutor-General.[3] The agency is further organised into ten prosecutor’s offices, which each oversee a specific type of crime or litigation.[10][23] Various additional departments, such as the Political Work Department, also exist within the Procuratorate.[24]

The organisation of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate is detailed below:[10][23][24]

Executive bodies

  • Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

Internal departments

  • General Affairs Office (Press Office)
  • The First Prosecutor's Office (Regular Crime Prosecutor's Office)
  • The Second Prosecutor's Office (Serious Crime Prosecutor's Office)
  • The Third Prosecutor's Office (Occupational Crime Prosecutor's Office)
  • The Fourth Prosecutor's Office (Economic Crime Prosecutor's Office)
  • Fifth Prosecutor's Office (Judicial Personnel Crime Prosecutor's Office)
  • Sixth Prosecutor's Office (Civil Prosecutor's Office)
  • Seventh Prosecutors' Office (Administrative Prosecutors' Office)
  • The Eighth Prosecutor's Office (Public Interest Litigation Prosecutor's Office)
  • The Ninth Procuratorate (Juvenile Case Prosecutor's Office)
  • Tenth Prosecutor's Office (Complaint and Appeal Prosecutor's Office)
  • Legal Policy Research Office
  • Foreign Affairs Bureau
  • Political Work Department
  • Planning, Financial and Equipment Bureau
  • Investigation Supervision Department
  • Reporting and Charges Centre
  • Bureau of Retired Officers
  • Intellectual Property Prosecution Office

Members

Prosecutor-General

As stipulated by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Supreme People's Procuratorate is led by the Prosecutor-General, who serves as the Chief Grand Prosecutor and President of the Procuratorate.[25] The office of the Prosecutor-General serves a five-year term, corresponding with the term length of the National People’s Congress.[25] Each Prosecutor-General may serve a maximum of two terms.[6]

The Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate is elected by the National People’s Congress, in accordance with the Procurators Law of the People’s Republic of China.[26] The National People’s Congress also carries the executive ability to remove a serving Prosecutor-General from power.[16]

The current serving Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate is Zhang Jun.[27] Zhang was elected to the position of Prosecutor-General in March 2018.[27]

Other members of the Procuratorate

In addition to the Prosecutor-General, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate is also composed of multiple Deputy Prosecutors-General and additional procurators.[6] The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress appoints all other members of the Procuratorate at the Prosecutor-General's recommendation.[6] The current Deputy Prosecutors-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate are Tong Jianming,[10] Sun Qian,[28] Zhang Xueqiao,[29] Chen Guoqing[30] and Yang Chunlei.[31]

List of Prosecutors-General

Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office of the Central People's Government

Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China

See also

References

  1. ^ Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (56). National People's Congress. 1 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ginsburgs, George; Stahnke, Arthur (December 1964). "The Genesis of the People's Procuratorate in Communist China 1949–1951". The China Quarterly. 20: 1–37. doi:10.1017/S0305741000048323. ISSN 0305-7410.
  3. ^ a b c d Ginsburgs, George; Stahnke, Arthur (June 1968). "The People's Procuratorate in Communist China: The Institution Ascendant, 1954–1957". The China Quarterly. 34: 82–132. doi:10.1017/S0305741000014442. ISSN 0305-7410.
  4. ^ a b Kim, Chin (1977-01-01). "The 1975 Constitution of the People's Republic of China". Hastings International and Comparative Law Review. 1 (2): 1. ISSN 0149-9246.
  5. ^ a b Kim, Chin; Kearley, Timothy (1979-01-01). "The 1978 Constitution of the People's Republic of China". Hastings International and Comparative Law Review. 2 (2): 251. ISSN 0149-9246.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Wang, Chang; Madson, Nathan H (2013). Inside China's legal system. Oxford, Cambridge, England; New Delhi, India: Elsevier Science & Technology. ISBN 978-0-85709-461-2. OCLC 878805962.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  7. ^ Wedeman, Andrew (2013). "Corruption". In Ogden, Chris (ed.). Handbook of China's governance and domestic politics. London and New York: Routledge. p. 182.
  8. ^ a b "Trial of Lin-Jiang Cliques Begins" (PDF). Beijing Review. 48: 3. 1 December 1980.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Keyuan, Zou (2002). "Judicial Reform in China: Recent Developments and Future Prospects". The International Lawyer. 36 (3): 1039–1062. ISSN 0020-7810.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "China's top procuratorate restructures - Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  11. ^ a b c d Mok, Susan (9 April 2021). "The Role of the Procuratorate in Intellectual Property Cases". China Law & Practice.
  12. ^ a b c d Chen, Lyric (2017-10-05). "Who Enforces China's Anti-corruption Laws? Recent Reforms of China's Criminal Prosecution Agencies and the Chinese Communist Party's Quest for Control". Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review. 40 (2): 139. ISSN 0277-5417.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Li, Li; Wang, Peng (27 May 2019). "From Institutional Interaction to Institutional Integration: The National Supervisory Commission and China's New Anti-corruption Model". The China Quarterly. 240: 967–989. doi:10.1017/S0305741019000596. ISSN 0305-7410.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Smith, Tobias (2019-04-11). "Power Surge: China's New National Supervisory Commission". In Golley, Jane; Jaivin, Linda; Farrelly, Paul J.; Strange, Sharon (eds.). China Story Yearbook: Power (1st ed.). ANU Press. doi:10.22459/csy.2019. ISBN 978-1-76046-280-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  15. ^ a b Woo, Margaret (2013). "Justice". In Ogden, Chris (ed.). Handbook of China's governance and domestic politics. London and New York: Routledge. p. 56.
  16. ^ a b Bo, Zhiyue (2013). "State power and governance structures". In Ogden, Chris (ed.). Handbook of China's governance and domestic politics. London and New York: Routledge. p. 18.
  17. ^ Wedeman, Andrew (2004). "The Intensification of Corruption in China". The China Quarterly (180): 895–921. ISSN 0305-7410.
  18. ^ a b "Practical Law UK Signon". signon.thomsonreuters.com. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  19. ^ a b Weidong, Ji (2013). "The Judicial Reform in China: The Status Quo and Future Directions". Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. 20 (1): 185. doi:10.2979/indjglolegstu.20.1.185. ISSN 1080-0727.
  20. ^ a b Translate, China Law (2018-10-28). "中华人民共和国人民检察院组织法 (2018年)". China Law Translate. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  21. ^ a b c d Qi, Ding (2019-08-09). The Power of the Supreme People’s Court: Reconceptualizing Judicial Power in Contemporary China (1 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429199479. ISBN 978-0-429-19947-9.
  22. ^ a b ""Special Measures"". Human Rights Watch. 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  23. ^ a b "最高检组建十个业务机构 突出系统性整体性重构性_中华人民共和国最高人民检察院". www.spp.gov.cn. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  24. ^ a b "Supreme People's Procuratorate_china.org.cn". www.china.org.cn. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  25. ^ a b "Constitution of the People's Republic of China". english.www.gov.cn. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  26. ^ "Procurators Law of the People's Republic of China". www.npc.gov.cn. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  27. ^ a b "Zhang Jun elected procurator-general of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate - Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  28. ^ "Chinese procurators to improve skills in handling cybercrime cases - Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  29. ^ "China's procuratorates to beef up public interest litigation for wildlife protection- China.org.cn". www.china.org.cn. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  30. ^ "China Focus: Chinese prosecutors increase efficiency in addressing public complaints - Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  31. ^ "China strengthens resolving administrative disputes - China.org.cn". www.china.org.cn. Retrieved 2021-05-14.


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