| 中华人民共和国最高人民检察院 | |
 Emblem of the People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China | |
 External gate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 27 September 1954; 71 years ago (1954-09-27) |
| Type | China's highest legal supervision agency |
| Jurisdiction | People's Republic of China |
| Headquarters | Beijing |
| Agency executives |
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| Parent agency | National People's Congress |
| Website | www |
TheSupreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China (SPP) is the highest national agency responsible for legalprosecution and prosecutorial investigation in China. The SPP reports to theNational People's Congress (NPC). The Procuratorate acts as a public prosecutor for criminal cases, conducting both the relevant investigations and prosecutions of such cases. The agency also reviews the legal rulings of the local and special procuratorates, the lowerpeople's courts, and issuesjudicial interpretations.
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 theCultural Revolution, before being re-instated in 1978. Between the 1990s and 2010s, the agency experienced a host of reforms pertaining to its selection of personnel, internal organization and role in the management of corruption. In March 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate's initial investigation of corruption cases by government officials was transferred to the newly formedNational Supervisory Commission.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate is organized into ten specialized 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 NPC, which also elects the other members of the Supreme People's Procuratorate at the Prosecutor-General's recommendation. The current Prosecutor-General of the People's Republic of China isYing Yong.
The most rudimentary version of the Supreme People's Procuratorate was established in September 1949 with the promulgation of theOrganic Law of theCentral People's Government.[1] Initially titled the "People's Prosecutor-General's Office", the Supreme People's Procuratorate was the first national agency tasked with the supervision of the law in the newly founded People's Republic of China.[1]
The responsibilities of the initial Procuratorate were formalized in the 1951Statutes.[1] As described by academics Ginsburgs and Stahnke, the agency's powers encompassed:
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.[1] The Procuratorate also had the ability to establish an office in eachlocal government area to supervise and lead the judicial system in the locality.[1] However, the Procuratorate was largely inactive following its inception.[1] This changed in 1953 when investigation departments within the body were created.[1]
In 1954, the People's Prosecutor-General's Office was renamed the "Supreme People's Procuratorate" at the first session of theFirst National People's Congress.[2] The new Procuratorate was formally enacted in the1954 State Constitution subsequently adopted by the Congress,[2] retaining its legal supervisory role. The jurisdiction of the Procuratorate was established as encompassing all government bodies,public functionaries andcitizens of China, except theCentral People's Government, which oversaw the agency's operation.[1]
During theCultural Revolution of 1966 – 1976, the people's procuratorates lost favor as they were perceived as an interference to theideology of the Chinese Communist Party.[3] Reflecting this sentiment, the Supreme People's Procuratorate was abolished from the1975 State Constitution alongside all other procuratorates.[3] Following its dissolution, the Procuratorate's powers of legal supervision over the state and individuals were transferred to thepolice.[4][5][6] The Supreme People's Procuratorate was subsequently re-established in 1978 via the reinstatement of the Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates in the1978 State Constitution. Its renewal served as a mechanism for the Party to oversee and preventmisconduct within the administration.[4]
In 1980, the Supreme People's Procuratorate established a Special Procuratorate to investigate and prosecute theLin Biao andJiang Qing "counter-revolutionary cliques."[7] In a trial led by the serving Prosecutor-GeneralHuang Huoqing, thedefendants were found guilty of plotting acoup to overthrow the leaders of theChinese Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution.[7]
In the 1990s, major reforms were made to the Chinese judicial system, including the people's courts and procuratorates.[8] These changes occurred primarily in response to theeconomic reform of China as asocialist market economy, a development instigated byDeng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992.[8] In 1995, the Procurator's Law was introduced to "professionalize the judicial personnel" by raising the stringency of the requirements used to select procurators and other procuratorate personnel.[8] Emphasis was placed on the selection of prosecutors and personnel based on merit, performance and experience inlegal practice.[8]
Further reform of the Procuratorate accompanied the adoption of the "Implementing Opinions of the Three-Year Procuratorial Reform" in January 2000.[8] This reform affirmed the hierarchy of the procuratorates and formalised the role of the higher procuratorates supervising and directing procuratorates located beneath them.[8] Alongside the reform, a new training program for procurators was introduced from 2001–2005 to manage workforce performance within the Procuratorate.[8]
In December 2018, major alterations were made to the internal organization of the Supreme People's Procuratorate through therestructuring of existing departments and the establishment of ten new prosecutor's offices.[9] Four of these offices were established to handle the prosecution of various types ofcriminal cases.[9] 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 byXinhua News Agency, China's officialstate-run media agency.[9]
In November 2020, the Intellectual Property Prosecution Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate was established to handle the investigation and prosecution ofintellectual property rights infringements.[10]
In 1979, the Supreme People's Procuratorate began its involvement in the investigation and prosecution of corruption by establishing a specialized department to investigateeconomic crimes.[11] Further pressure from student activists and Party members alike in the early 1990s led to the people's procuratorates developing more stringent protocols to manage corruption.[11] Anti-corruption enforcement by the Supreme People's Procuratorate's grew 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.[12] However, the Procuratorate's supervision of corruption was later streamlined by legislation from theNational 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.[11][12]
In May 2017, the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Anti-Corruption Bureau andAlibaba "to create a clean, credible, rule-of-law market environment."[13]: 77 Pursuant to the memorandum, the Bureau provides Alibaba andAnt Group with access to criminal records from bribery cases and Alibaba and Ant Group query those records including during verification ofTaobao sellers and in connection with anti-money laundering initiatives and financial risk controls.[13]: 77
The management of corruption by the Chinese Communist Party was broadly transformed in 2018.[12] At the March meeting of the13th National People's Congress, a new anti-corruption agency titled theNational Supervisory Commission was formally installed to consolidate the various anti-corruption authorities which existed under the Party, including those of the Procuratorate.[12][14] The Supreme People's Procuratorate role in anti-corruption enforcement was largely rescinded, with all these responsibilities directly transferred to the new National Supervisory Commission.[12][14] The Procuratorate's anti-corruption personnel saw a similar transition.[14]
The Supreme People's Procuratorate serves as the highestprosecutorial power in the People's Republic of China, overseeing the nation's local and special procuratorates.[5][11] As determined by theOrganic Law, the primary function of the Procuratorate is to suppress illegal activities, particularly those which undermine the interests of China's ruling party, theChinese Communist Party.[5]
The jurisdiction of the Procuratorate encompasses all cases related tocriminal law, public and state security, people's courts,prisons, detention centers and labour institutions within the People's Republic of China.[15] The agency does not oversee the prosecution of cases from thespecial administrative regions ofHong Kong orMacau, except those that are investigated by theOffice for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR.[16]
As specified in theConstitution of China, the Supreme People's Procuratorate nominally exerts its powers independently, without interference from "any administrative organ, social organization or individual."[17] However, like theSupreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate must report to theNational People's Congress, the highest state body in China.[18]
The Supreme People's Procuratorate acts as apublic prosecutor by handling both the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases in court,[5][19][8] thus functioning as acivil lawinquisitorial system.[20] Such systems are also seen inJapan andsocialist legal systems.[20] Within the Procuratorate, criminal prosecution is overseen by four specialized departments that oversee "regular crimes, serious crimes, duty crimes, and new-type crimes," respectively.[9] The agency reviews and arbitrates on whichcriminal suspects should be investigated and which criminal cases should be taken to a public prosecution.[10] It may also initiatepublic interest litigation.[21][better source needed]
The Supreme People's Procuratorate conducts reviews of rulings and investigations performed by local and special procuratorates.[22] 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 formalappeal with theSupreme People's Court.[15][22] For civil and administrative cases, includingintellectual property cases, this intervention mainly occurs after the court has handed down a legally binding and enforceable decision.[10] The Procuratorate may act in this manner by choice or whenpetitioned by a litigant involved in a given case.[10]
The Procuratorate, either independently or in conjunction with theSupreme People's Court, may also issuejudicial interpretations, which are official and legally binding interpretations of the law.[22] These interpretations may serve as "replies" to individual cases, reminiscent of Roman law, or apply more broadly.[23] Despite theoretically possessing less legal authority than the law, academics C.H. van Rhee and Yulin Fu perceive the Procuratorate's judicial interpretations as being "almost as effective as law" in court.[23]
Between the 1980s to the early 2010s, the Supreme People's Procuratorate investigated and prosecutedcorruption andbribery through its anti-corruption departments.[14] The Supreme People's Procuratorate also assisted theCentral Commission for Discipline Inspection with the prosecution of party members relegated to a form ofextralegal detention known asShuanggui.[22]Shuanggui is a procedure used to extract evidence and confessions from CCP members under investigation.[24] Material obtained usingShuanggui was passed onto the Procuratorate and used in the prosecution of party members.[24]
As of March 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate no longer performs these responsibilities.[14][12] These powers have instead been assumed by theNational Supervisory Commission, which campaigns against corruption in conjunction with theCentral Commission for Discipline Inspection – theanti-graft agency of the Chinese Communist Party.[14][12] Some academics prompted that these changes have reduced the overall power of the Procuratorate.[14]
The Supreme People's Procuratorate is led by aProcurator-General, who serves as the Chief Grand Prosecutor and President of the Procuratorate.[17] The office of the Prosecutor-General serves a five-year term, corresponding with the term length of theNational People's Congress.[17] Each Prosecutor-General may serve a maximum of two terms.[5] The Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate is elected by theNational People's Congress, in accordance with the Procurators Law of the People's Republic of China.[25] The National People's Congress also carries the executive ability to remove a serving Prosecutor-General from power.[18]
In addition to the Prosecutor-General, the Supreme People's Procuratorate is also composed of multiple Deputy Prosecutors-General, members of the Procuratorial Committee and additional procurators.[5][26] All other members of the Procuratorate are appointed by theStanding Committee of the National People's Congress[26] at the Prosecutor-General's recommendation.[5] Likewise, members may be removed from the Procuratorate at the will of the People's Congress and the Prosecutor-General.[26]
The Supreme People's Procuratorate is led by a Procuratorial Committee, which oversees the operation of the Procuratorate under the direction of the Procurator-General.[2] The agency is further organised into ten prosecutor's offices, which each oversee a specific type of crime orlitigation.[9][27] Various additional departments, such as the Political Work Department, also exist within the Procuratorate, to oversee additional affairs.[28] Several subordinate institutions are also directly affiliated with the Procuratorate.[28] The organisation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate is detailed below:[9][27][28][29][10]
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