Supreme People's Procuratorate
The Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China (SPP; 中华人民共和国最高人民检察院) is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and prosecutorial investigation in China. The SPP reports to the National People's Congress (NPC).
Agency overview
27 September 1954
China's highest legal supervision agency
People's Republic of China
- Ying Yong,
Prosecutor-General - Tong Jianming,
Executive Deputy Prosecutor-General - Sun Qian,
Deputy Prosecutor-General - Zhang Xueqiao,
Deputy Prosecutor-General - Chen Guoqing,
Deputy Prosecutor-General - Liu Wei,
Head of the Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Team - Pan Yiqin,
Director of the Political Department - Gong Ming,
Deputy Prosecutor-General - Zhang Zhijie,
Deputy Prosecutor-General
Under the state's Organic Law, the primary function of the SPP is to suppress illegal activities, particularly those which undermine the interests of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Procuratorate acts as a public prosecutor for criminal cases, conducting both the relevant investigations and prosecutions of such cases. The agency also reviews the legal rulings of the local and special procuratorates, the lower people's courts, and issues judicial interpretations. The SPP does not have judicial independence or authority beyond what is granted to it by the NPC under the state's system of unitary power.
Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was renamed the Supreme People's Procuratorate in 1954. The Procuratorate was abolished during the Cultural Revolution, before being re-instated in 1978. Between the 1990s to 2010s, the agency experienced a host of reforms pertaining to its selection of personnel, internal organization and role in the management of corruption.
Beginning in March 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate no longer undertakes the initial investigation of corruption cases by government officials; this task is undertaken by the newly formed National Supervisory Commission.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate is organized into ten specialized prosecutor's offices, which operate under the direction of a Procuratorial Committee. Led by a Prosecutor-General, the Procuratorate is also composed of several Deputy Prosecutors-General and additional prosecutors. The Prosecutor-General is appointed by the NPC, which also elects the other members of the Supreme People's Procuratorate at the Prosecutor-General's recommendation. The current Prosecutor-General of the People's Republic of China is Ying Yong.
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
The most rudimentary version of the Supreme People's Procuratorate was established in September 1949 with the promulgation of the Organic Law of the Central People's Government.[1] Initially titled the "People's Prosecutor-General's Office", the Supreme People's Procuratorate was the first national agency tasked with the supervision of the law in the newly founded People's Republic of China.[1]
The responsibilities of the initial Procuratorate were formalized in the 1951 Statutes.[1] As described by academics Ginsburgs and Stahnke, the agency's powers encompassed:
Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office of the Central People's Government
Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China
