Amendment of the rules of qualification and purpose of punishment for corruption crimes under criminal law of the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

In this article, the authors analyze the norms of criminal law in relation to corruption behavior in China, paying attention to the fact that these norms are one of the key elements of several stages of changes in the Criminal Code of China. Thus, the Ninth Amendment to the Criminal Code of China in 2015 marks a new level in the field of combating corruption crimes and demonstrates the countermeasures of the central government of China in this area. The publication of Joint Explanations on some issues of the application of laws in criminal cases related to corruption of the Supreme People’s Court of People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Supreme People’s Prosecutor’s Office of China from 2016 further explained the regulations about the size of bribes, the circumstances of the case, and the mitigation of punishment for crimes related to corruption, but it also played an important role in law-enforcement practices in cases related to corruption. In particular, a clear correlation was established between the rules of qualification and sentencing for corruption crimes in relation to the circumstances of the case. The authors conclude that in addition to the death penalty, the current criminal policy of China provides for the use of life imprisonment, which constantly hangs with the “sword of Damocles” and has a preventive effect on officials who have not yet solved the moral dilemma. The authors note that in the criminal policy of the PRC there are still some rough edges and controversial approaches, in particular, the question of mitigation of punishment, its correlation with the public danger of an illegal act, etc. The article provides a content analysis of the Ninth Amendement and Joint Explanations, which proposed a number of new approaches based on the theoretical provisions of criminal law to the prevention of corruption crimes. In conclusion, the authors state that the severity of punishment in China is not an end in itself, it is subject to other value aspirations. The decline in the use of the death penalty was therefore an international trend, and the approach to the absolute use of the death penalty for corruption and bribery in China had been changed to a relative one, taking into account the circumstances of the case.