SPC provisions on publishing the Judgment Defaulter List (2017 edition)

Title: The Supreme People's Court's Several Provisions on the Release of the Judgment Defaulters List
Promulgating Entities: Supreme People's Court
Reference number:
Promulgation Date: 2017-2-28
Expiration date:
Source of text: People's Court Bulletin March 2, 2017 page 03

(Passed on June 1, 2013 by the 1582nd meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People's Court, and amended on the basis of the "Supreme People's Court Decision on Amending the 'The Supreme People's Court The Supreme People's Court's Several Provisions on the Release of the Judgment Defaulters List'" passed by the 1707th meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People's Court on January 16, 2017)

These provisions are drafted on the basis of the provisions of the "Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" combined with the actual work experience of the people's courts, so as to spur persons subject to enforcement to conscientiously perform obligations set forth in effective legal documents, and to advance the establishment of a social credit system.

Article 1: In any of the following situations where a person subject to enforcement has not performed obligations set forth in an effective legal document, the people's courts shall enter them onto a Judgment Defaulters List and give them credit penalties in accordance with law.

(1) Where they have the ability to perform obligations set forth in effective legal documents, but refuse to do so;

(2) Obstructing or resisting enforcement by fabricating evidence, violence, threats, or other such means;

(3) Using fake lawsuits, fake arbitration or other means to conceal or transfer assets and evade enforcement;

(4) Violating the asset reporting system;

(5) Violating orders restricting spending;

(6) Refusing to perform on an enforcement settlement agreement without legitimate reason.

Article 2: Where judgment defaulters have the circumstances provided for in items (2)-(6) of the Article 1, the period for entry into the Judgment Defaulters List is 2 years. Where persons subject to enforcement obstruct or resist enforcement through violence or threats and the circumstances are serious or there multiple instances of untrustworthy conduct, an extension of between 1-3 years may be given.

Where judgment defaulters actively perform the obligations set forth in effective legal documents or actively correct their defaulting conduct, the people's courts may decide to remove the information on their default earlier.

Article 3: In any of the following circumstances, the people's courts must not enter persons subject to enforcement into the Judgment Defaulters List on the basis of the first item of Article 1:

(1) Provide a fully effective guarantee;

(2) Assets against which measures such as sealing, seizure, or freezing have already been applied are sufficient to satisfy debts provided for in effective legal documents;

(3) the person subject to enforcement's performance is lower in priority and compulsory enforcement shouldn't be made against them;

(4) Other circumstance that are not of someone having the ability to perform obligations set forth in effective legal documents, but refusing to do so;

Article 4: Where persons subject to enforcement are minors, the people's courts must not enter them onto the Judgment Defaulters List.

Article 5: The risk of being entered into the Judgment Defaulters List, and other such content, shall be clearly included in the enforcement notifications issued by the people's courts to persons subject to enforcement.

Where the person applying for enforcement finds that the person subject to enforcement has any of the defaulting acts provided for in Article 1 of these Provisions, they may apply to the people's court to have them entered onto the Judgment Defaulters List. The people's courts shall review and issue a decision within 15 days of receiving the application. Where the people's courts find that the person subject to enforcement has any of the defaulting acts provided for in Article 1 of these Provisions, they may exercise their power by deciding to have them entered onto the Judgment Defaulters List.

Where people's courts decide to enter a person subject to enforcement into the Judgment Defaulters List, they shall draft a decision document, and the decision document shall clearly state the reason for entry into the Judgment Defaulters List and clearly state the time period if there is one. The decision document is to be signed and issued by the court president and take effect from the date of its issue. The decision document shall be served upon the parties in accordance with the Civil Procedure Law's provisions on methods of service for legal documents.

Article 6: The recorded and published Judgment Defaulters List shall include:

(1) The name and organization code persons subject to enforcement that are legal persons or other organizations, and the full name of their legally-designated representative or responsible party;

(2) The full name, sex, age, and ID card number of persons subject to enforcement who are natural persons;

(3) The obligations set forth in an effective legal document, and the situation of the person subject to enforcement's performance;

(4) The specific circumstances of the person subject to enforcement's delinquent conduct;

(5) The unit that drafted the basis for the enforcement and the reference number, enforcement case number, time of case filing, and enforcing court;

(6) Other matters that the people's courts feel should be documented and published that do not relate to national secrets, commercial secrets or personal privacy.

Article 7: All levels of people's court shall record information from the Judgment Defaulters List in the Supreme People's Court repository of Judgment Defaulter Lists, and uniformly announce it to the public through this list repository.

All levels of people's court may, on the basis of actual local conditions, publish the Judgment Defaulters List through newspapers, radio, television, networks, court information boards, and other such means, and may employ methods such as news briefings to periodically make public the conditions of that court's and it's jurisdictional areas' situation on the Judgment Defaulters List.

Article 8: People's courts shall report information from the Judgment Defaulters List to the relevant government departments, financial supervisory authorities, financial institutions, public institutions undertaking administrative duties, trade associations, and the like; so that these units may follow the relevant provisions of laws and regulations to give credit penalties to judgment defaulters in areas such as government procurement, bid tendering, administrative approvals, government support, financing credit, market access, and determination of qualifications.

People's courts shall report information from the Judgment Defaulters List to credit bureaus and have them record it in their credit systems.

Where a state employee, people's congress delegate, or CPPCC member, is entered into the Judgment Defaulters List, the people's court shall report the information on the circumstances of their default to their unit and the relevant departments.

Where state organs or public institutions are entered into the Judgment Defaulters List, the people's court shall report the information on circumstances of the default to the unit or supervisory department at the level above or the institution that performs sponsorship duties.

Article 9: Where citizens, legal persons, or other organizations that should not be entered into the Judgment Defaulters List are entered into the Judgment Defaulters List, the people's courts shall remove the information on their default within 3 working days.

Where information on defaults that was documented and announced is not accurate, the people's courts shall correct that information on defaults within 3 working days.

Article 10: The people's courts shall delete information on defaults within 3 days where there are any of the following circumstances:

(1) persons subject to enforcement have already performed the obligations set forth in the effective legal documents or the people's courts have already completed enforcement;

(2) Where an enforcement settlement agreement reached by the parties has been completely performed;

(3) the person applying for enforcement applies in writing to delete the information on default, and the people's court consents upon review;

(4) After completing the enforcement procedures this time, the person subject to enforcement's assets are checked two or more times through the online enforcement inspection and control sytem without discovering any assets that could be used for enforcement, and the person applying for enforcement or others have not provided any effective leads on assets;

(5) the people's court lawfully rules to suspend enforcement against the judgment defaulters because of trial supervision or bankruptcy procedures;

(6) People's courts lawfully rule to not support enforcement;

(7) The people's court lawfully rules to terminate enforcement.

Where there is a set term, the provisions of the preceding paragraph are not applied. The people's courts shall delete information on defaults within 3 days of completing the end of the retention period.

Where, after information on default is deleted in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of this article, the person subject to enforcement has any of the circumstances provided for in Article 1 of these Provisions, the people's courts may newly enter them into the Judgment Defaulters List.

Where, six days after information on default has been deleted in accordance with item (1) of Article 3 of these provisions, the person applying for enforcement applies to have the person subject to enforcement entered into the Judgment Defaulters List, the people's courts will not support it.

Article 11: Where citizens, legal persons, or other organizations that have been entered into the Judgment Defaulters List feel that there are any of the following circumstances, they may apply to the enforcing court for corrections:

(1) they should not have been entered into the Judgment Defaulters List;

(2) inaccurate information on defaults was recorded and announced;

(3) Information on defaults should be deleted.

Article 12: Where citizens, legal persons, or other organizations apply to correct entry into the Judgment Defaulters List, the enforcing court shall review it within 15 days of receiving the written application for corrections, and where the reasons are sustained, they shall make corrections within 3 working days; where the reasons are not sustained, they shall reject it. Where citizens, legal persons or other organizations are not satisfied with a rejection decision, they may apply for a reconsideration to the people's court at the level above within 10 days of service of the written decision. The people's court at the level above shall issue a decision within 15 days of receiving the application for reconsideration.

The enforcement of the original decision does not stop during the period of reconsideration.

Article 13: Where people's courts' staff violate these provisions by announcing, revoking, modifying, or deleting information on defaults, refer to relevant provisions to pursue their responsibility.