Procuratorate action in the first half of 2022, by the numbers

This data was taken from a press release given in July 20, 2022.
https://www.sohu.com/a/569588005_115239

Table of Tables

1. Overall Arrest and Prosecution Rates
2. Plea Leniency System Implementation
3. Supervision Cases
   1. Supervision of Criminal Cases
   2. Supervision in Civil Cases
   3. Supervision in Administrative Cases
4. Public interest litigation
5. Juvenile Crime and Crimes against minors
6. IP Protections
7. Petitioning and Judicial Aid
8. Normalization of Saohei, and guiding healthy economic development
9. Leadership participation in handling cases

Overall Arrest and Prosecution Rates

Arrest here refers to 逮捕 a proceeding different than the initial custody enacted by police, which refers to the approval of continued pre-trial detention by prosecutors upon application by the police.

Topic	#	Change
Arrest approved/decided upon	222,000 persons	Down 51.2%
Not arrested	139,000	Down 21.3%
Non-arrest rate	39.2%	Up 10.8%
Reviewed for prosecution	982,000	Up 11.2%
Decided to prosecute	681,000	Down 14.4%
Decided not to prosecute	209,000	Up 55.7%
Non-Prosecution Rate	23.5%	Up 9.1%

 

Plea Leniency System Implementation

[The plea leniency system is a new procedure through which criminal suspects or defendants can receive a reduced sentence in exchange for an admission of guilt, ofter used in conjunction with procedures for reducing the time of trial]

Implemented after a decision to prosecute	>85%
Prosecutors gave a definite sentencing recommendation	>90%
Sentencing rec. was adopted	>95%

 

Supervision of Criminal Cases

One of the reasons that we refer to ‘Procurators’ in China, rather than simply ‘prosecutors’ is because the procuratorate possesses functions beyond criminal prosecutions. Among these additional duties is the duty of “Legal Supervision” through which the procurators are to ensure that the courts and police correctly perform their duties and apply the law.

Topic	#	Change
Supervision of police opening OR withdrawing a case	40,000 cases	Up 50%
Cases in which polices filed or withdrew	37,000 cases (92.5% of supervised cases)	Up 11.6%
Correcting illegal investigatory conduct	52,000 cases	Up 57.9%
Corrected in the period	51,000 cases (97.3%)	Up 8.7%
Procuratorate appeals of case judgment	3571 cases	Down 15.4%
Court judgment changed OR remand for retrial	1468 Cases (61.6% of the completed trials)	Up 6.8%
Correction of illegal trial activity	9343 instances	Up 110%
Corrected in the period	8863 instances (94.9%)	Up 4.1%
ENFORCEMENT
Correction of improper commutation, parole, or temporary release	28,000 persons	Up 4.8%
Correcting illegality in enforcement	29,000 instances	Up 21.1%
Correcting illegal enforcement outside of prison	38,000 persons	Up 58%
Correction of improper performance of duties related to financial penalties	24,000 instances	Up 64.7%
Opened cases for investigation of Crimes Abusing Public Office  by Judicial Personnel	791 persons	Up 31.8%

 

Supervision in Civil Cases

Topic	#	Change
Supervision of civil rulings and judgments	35,000 instances	Up 5.2%
Supervision opinions submitted	6.202 instances	Down  2.7%
Of these, submitted procuratorate appeals	2,023 instances	Down 7.5%
Retrial opinions	4,179 instances
Changed judgment through appeals	90.9%	Up 6.7%
Supervision  of trial activities
Submitted opinions on illegal trial conduct	23,000 instances	Up 28%
Opinions adopted by court in the period	22,000 instances (93.6%)
Submitted opinions on illegal enforcement conduct	26,000 instances	Up 22.7%
Opinions adopted in same period	89.5%
Submitted opinions on false litigation	2,324 instances
Supported civil litigation	35,000 instances	Up 81.7%
Of these involving migrant labor	22,000 instances	Up 64%

 

Supervision in Administrative Cases

Topic	#	Change
Handling cases of supervision of administrative case judgments	8,269 instances
Of these, launched procuratorate appeal	88 instances
Retrial and judgment change	49 instances (83.1%)	Up 8.1%
Submitted procuratorate recommendation for retrial	139 instances
Court retried in same period	50 instances (36%)	Up 20.5%
Submitted recommendations on illegal administrative trial activity	7,081 instances	Up 150%
Adopted by court in same period	6,900 instances (97.4%)	Up 17.8%
Submitted recommendations for illegal administrative enforcement activity	18,000 instances	Up 85.1%
Adopted by court in same period	18,000 instances (98.6%)
Substantive resolution of administrative disputes	5,345 instances	Up 83%

 

Public interest litigation

Public litigation is another newer function of the procuratorate, by which the procurators can bring lawsuits to protect the public good in areas where a large number of persons are impacted such as consumer rights, environmental protection, food safety, etc.  Such suits may be Civil, targeting non-governmental actors, or Administrative, targeting government regulators for failure to perform their duties.

Topic	#	Change
Public interest cases opened	107,000	Up 32.3%
Civil	13,000 cases
Administrative	94,000 cases
Pre-trial procedures	82,000 cases	Up 22.9%
Filed suite	4801 cases	Up 30.9%
Supported by court	100%
Recovered state land	1.21 billion RMB	Down 52.5%
Environmental compensation	310 million RMB	Up 190%
Recovered, cleaned, restored protected lands	325,000 mu (53,539.5 acres)	Up 200%

 

Juvenile Crime and Crimes against minors

Topic	#	Change
Approved juvenile arrest	6,988 persons
Did not approve juvenile arrest	12,223 persons (63.6%, 24.4% higher than overall non-arrest rate)	Increase of 17.9%
Approved arrest for offenses against juvenile victims	16,159 persons
Prosecuted minors	13, 278 persons
Non-prosecution of minors	16, 458 persons (55.3%, 31.8% higher than for all prosecutions)
Conditional non-prosecution at completion of trial	12,000 persons (37.3%)	Up 12.9%
Prosecuted crimes against minors	25,000 persons
Used counseling and interventions to waive punishment	3,156 times	Up 110%
Carried out rule of law lecture tours	12,640 times	Up 30.9%

 

IP Protection Cases

Topic	#	Change
Intellectual property criminal prosecutions	5,830 persons	Down 3.5%
Involving trademark fraud/sale of goods under false TM	2,362/2,102 persons (76% of all IP crime cases)
Supervision cases involving judgments or mediation in IP cases	229
Copyright Trademark Patent	68 cases 32 cases 14 cases	Collectively 69.1% of these supervision cases

 

Petitioning and Judicial Aid

Topic	#	Change
Total petitions received	369,000 instances	Down 23.2%
Repeat petitions	114,000 instances	Down 26.8%
Applications for compensation in criminal matters		Down 36.7%
Successful		Down 27.9%
Gave judicial aid	22,000 instances	Up 93.8%
Judicial aid funds released	250 million RMB	Up 74.1%

 

Normalization of “Saohei”, and guiding healthy economic development

Saohei is often oversimplified as a criminal law action to crack down on organized crime, but as the articles linked above describe, it is actually broader, aimed at eliminating local forces that disrupt stability and Central Party rule, as well as officials that protect them.

Topic	#	Change
Saohei prosecutions	5,738 persons	Down 31.9%
Prosecuted the “protectors” of malign forces	130 persons
Prosecutions for undermining order of market economy	47,000 persons
Made appeals or retrial recommendations in civil/administrative cases impacting the economy	726 cases
Raised procuratorate recommendations on civil/administrative trials and enforcement activities	1426 cases	Up 37.7%

 

Leadership participation in handling cases

Topic	#	Change
Leadership participated in case handling	325,000 cases	Up .8%
Chief procurators	37,000 cases (11.3%)
Deputy Chief, procuratorate committee heads etc.	289,000 cases (88.7%)
Criminal cases (including all related matters)	207,000 cases (63.5%)
Civil/Administrative	39,000 cases (11.9%)
Public interest Litigation	77,000 cases (23.6%)
Case management	1104
Chief procurator (or entrusted deputy chief) attending meetings of court adjudication committees	7,249 cases	Up 39%