Laws of the People's Republic of China

the Standing Committee of the People's Congress

Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

No. 27

The Amendment to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, which was adopted by the thirteenth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth People's Congress on December 25, 1999, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of the date of its promulgation.

the President of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin

December 25, 1999

Amendment to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China

In order to punish the crime of disrupting the order of the socialist market economy and guarantee the smooth progress of construction of socialist modernization, the criminal law is amended as follows:

1.

Subsequent to Article 162 , one article is supplemented as one clause of Article 162 : "Where anyone conceals or deliberately destroys accounting vouchers, account books or financial accounting statements, if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of lower than five years or criminal detention, and/or be imposed a fine not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan.

Where an entity commits the crime as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it shall be imposed a fine, and the liable person who is directly in charge or other persons who are directly responsible for the offence shall be punished according to the preceding paragraph."

2.

Article 168 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Where an employee of a state-owned company or enterprise is seriously irresponsible or misuses his authorities, and causes bankruptcy or serious losses to the state-owned company or enterprise, which thus results in heavy losses to the interests of the state, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention; where the losses to the interests of the state are extremely heavy, he shall be sentenced to fix-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. Where an employee of a state-owned institution commits the crime as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and thus results in heavy losses to the interests of the state, he shall be punished according to the preceding paragraph.

Where an employee of a state-owned company, enterprise or institution practises favouritism and embezzlement and commits the crimes as mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs, he shall be given a heavier punishment according to the first paragraph of this article."

3.

Article 174 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Where anyone establishes, without the approval of relevant competent departments of the state, commercial banks, securities exchanges, futures exchanges, securities companies, futures brokering companies, insurance companies or other financial institutions, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and/or shall be imposed a fine of not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fix-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and/or shall be imposed a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan.

Where anyone forges, alters or transfers the permit for operation or other approval documents of a commercial bank, securities exchange, futures exchange, securities company, futures brokering company, insurance company or other financial institutions, he shall be punished according to the preceding paragraph.

Where an entity commits the crimes as mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs, it shall be imposed a fine, and the liable person who is directly in charge or other persons who are directly responsible for the offence shall be punished according to the first paragraph of this article.

4.

Article 180 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Where anyone, who knows the inside information on any exchange of securities or futures or illegally obtains such information, prior to the publication of the information that concerns the issuance of securities or the exchange of securities or futures or has vital influence on the exchange price, buys or sells the very securities, undertakes futures exchanges related to such inside information or divulges the information, shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and/or be imposed a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times of the illegal gains; if the circumstances are extremely serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 10 years and shall also be imposed a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times of the illegal gains.

Where an entity commits the crime as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it shall be imposed a fine, and the liable person who is directly in charge or other persons who are directly responsible for the offence shall be sentenced to fix-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention.

The range of inside information and the insiders shall be formulated in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations."

5.

Article 181 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Whoever fabricates and spreads false information to adversely affect stock or futures exchange transactions, disrupt the securities or futures exchange market and thus results in serious consequences, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and/or be imposed a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan.

Where any employee of a stock exchange, futures exchange, securities company or futures brokering company or any member of a securities association or futures association or department for the administration of securities or futures deliberately provides false information or forges, alters or destroys transaction records in order to deceive investors into buying or selling securities or futures contracts and thus serious consequences are resulted, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and/or shall be imposed a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan; if the circumstances are extremely serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not lower than five years but not more than 10 years, and/or shall be imposed a fine of not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan.

Where an entity commits the crimes as mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs, it shall be imposed a fine, and the liable person who is directly in charge or other persons who are directly responsible for the crime shall be sentenced to fix-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention."

6.

Article 182 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Where anyone commits any of the following acts by manipulating the prices of securities or futures in order to obtain unwarrantable profits or transfer risks shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and/or shall be imposed a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times of the illegal gains:

(1)

manipulating the prices of securities or futures alone or together with other persons by concluding the exchanges jointly or continuously through a mustering superiority in the holding of funds, shares or futures storage or the inside information;

(2)

affecting the prices of securities or futures or the volume of securities or futures exchanges by colluding with another and carrying out securities or futures exchanges between themselves at a time, price or in a manner previously agreed upon, or buying or selling between themselves the securities they do not hold;

(3)

affecting the prices of securities or futures or the volume of securities or futures exchanges by taking himself as the counterpart of exchange and trading in stocks with himself without transferring the ownership of the securities or trading in the futures contracts; or

(4)

manipulating the prices of securities or futures by other means.

Where an entity commits any of the crimes as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it shall be imposed a fine, and the liable person who is directly in charge and other persons who are directly responsible for the crime shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention."

7.

Article 185 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Where any employee of a commercial bank, securities exchange, futures exchange, securities company, futures brokering company, insurance company or any other banking institution, by taking advantage of his position, embezzles money belonging to the entity or any client, he shall be convicted and punished according to Article 272 of this Law.

Where any employee of a State-owned commercial bank, stock exchange, futures exchange, securities company, futures brokering company, insurance company or other banking institutions, or any person who is assigned by a state-owned commercial bank, stock exchange, futures exchange, securities company, futures brokering company, insurance company or other banking institutions to an institution that is not owned by the state to engage in public service, commits the crime as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, he shall be convicted and punished according to the provisions in Article 384 of this Law.

8.

A clause is supplemented to Article 225 as the third clause: "without permission of the competent departments of the state, engaging in the business of securities, futures or insurance." The third clause of the original Law shall be changed accordingly as the fourth clause.

9.

This amendment shall come into force as of the date of its promulgation.