Laws of the People's Republic of China

DECISION OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL
PEOPLE'S CONGRESS REGARDING THE SEVERE
PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS WHO SERIOUSLY
ENDANGER PUBLIC SECURITY

 (Adopted at the Second Meeting of the Standing committee of
the Sixth National People's Congress andpromulgated
for implementation by Order No. 3 of the President of the
People's Republic of China on September 2, 1983)

SUBJECT: CRIMINAL LAW

ISSUING-DEPT: STANDING COMMITTEE OF PEOPLE'S CONGRESS

ISSUE-DATE: 09/02/1983

IMPLEMENT-DATE: 09/02/1983

LENGTH: 849 words

TEXT:

In order to maintain public security, ensure the safety of the lives and property of the people and safeguard the smooth progress of the socialist construction, it is imperative to subject criminals who seriously endanger public security to severe punishment.  To this end it is decided:

(1) Punishment above the maximum punishment stipulated in the Criminal Law, up to and including death sentences, may be inflicted on the following criminals who seriously endanger public security:

a.  ringleaders of criminal hooligan groups or those who carry lethal weapons to engage in criminal hooligan activities, if the circumstances are serious, or those who engage in criminal hooligan activities leading to especially serious consequences;

b.  whoever intentionally inflicts serious bodily injury upon another person or causes the person's death, if the circumstances are flagrant, or whoever commits violence and injures a state functionary or citizen who has accused, exposed or arrested a criminal or stopped a criminal act;

c.  ringleaders of groups who abduct and traffic in human beings, or whoever abducts and traffics in human beings, when the circumstances are especially serious;

d.  whoever illegally manufactures, trades in, transports, steals or forcibly seizes guns, ammunition or explosives, when the circumstances are especially serious or when serious consequences are caused;

e.  whoever organizes reactionary secret societies or uses feudal superstition to carry on counterrevolutionary activities, thereby seriously endangering public security; or

f.  whoever lures or forces a woman into prostitution or shelters her in prostitution, when the circumstances are especially serious.

(2) Whoever imparts criminal methods, when the circumstances are relatively minor, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years; when the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years; and when the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or death.

(3) This Decision shall, upon its promulgation, be applicable to the adjudication of the criminal cases mentioned above.

APPENDIX:

THE RELEVANT ARTICLES IN THE CRIMINAL LAW

[Article 160] Where an assembled crowd engages in affrays, creates disturbances, humiliates women or engages in other hooligan activities that undermine public order, if the circumstances are flagrant, the offenders shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than seven years, criminal detention or public surveillance.

Ringleaders of hooligan groups shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years.

[Article 134] Whoever intentionally inflicts bodily injury upon another person shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention.

Whoever, by committing the crime mentioned in the preceding paragraph, causes severe injury to another person shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than seven years; if he causes a person's death, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years or life imprisonment.  Where this Law has other provisions, such provisions shall prevail.

[Article 141] Whoever abducts and traffics in human beings shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years; if the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years.

[Article 112] Whoever illegally manufactures, trades in or transports guns or ammunition or steals or forcibly seizes the guns or ammunition of state organs, members of the armed forces, the police or the people's militia shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than seven years; if the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years or life imprisonment.

[Article 99] Whoever organizes or uses feudal superstition, superstitious sects or secret societies to carry on counterrevolutionary activities shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years; if the circumstances are relatively minor, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights.

[Article 140] Whoever forces a woman to engage in prostitution shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than ten years.

[Article 169] Whoever, for the purpose of profit, lures women into prostitution or shelters them in prostitution shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance; if the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and may concurrently be sentenced to a fine or confiscation of property.