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

by Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

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

(Adopted at the 7th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on February 28, 2009)

1. The third paragraph of Article 151 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any person who smuggles other goods or articles prohibited from import or export by the State, such as precious and rare species of plants and the products thereof, shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be subject to a fine alone; if the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than five years and be concurrently imposed with a fine."

2. The first paragraph of Article 180 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any person in possession of insider information about stock or futures transactions, or any person who illegally obtains such information, prior to the publication of such information as relates to the issuing of stocks, or stock or futures transactions, or as has a vital bearing on the transaction price of stocks or futures, buys or sells that stock, conducts futures transactions related to that insider information, divulges that insider information, or causes others to conduct the aforementioned transactions expressly or impliedly shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be subject to a fine alone of not less than one time but not more than five times the amount of the illegal gains; if the circumstances are particularly serious, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and be concurrently imposed with a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times the amount of the illegal gains."

One paragraph is added as the fourth paragraph, which reads as follows: "Any employee of a stock exchange, futures exchange, securities company, futures brokerage company, fund management company, commercial bank, insurance company or any other financial institution, or any staff member of relevant regulatory department or industry association, who makes use of other undisclosed information than inside information obtained by taking advantage of his or her power of office to, in violation of the rules, conduct stocks or futures transactions related to that information or cause others to conduct related transactions expressly or impliedly, shall, if the circumstances are serious, be subject to punishment in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph."

3. Article 201 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any taxpayer who files a false tax return or fails to file a tax return by means of deception or concealment to evade taxes shall, if the amount of tax evaded is relatively large and accounts for not less than 10 percent of the total of taxes payable, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine; if the amount of tax evaded is large and accounts for not less than 30 percent of the total taxes payable, the taxpayer shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and be concurrently imposed with a fine.

"Where a withholding agent who, by using the means mentioned in the preceding paragraph, fails to pay or underpays the taxes which the agent has withheld or collected shall, if the amount is relatively large, be subject to punishment in accordance with the provisions in the preceding paragraph.

"Any person who repeatedly commits the acts mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs and goes unpunished shall be punished on the basis of the cumulative total.

"Any person who has committed the acts mentioned in the first paragraph, but has paid the taxes in arrears and the surcharge thereon upon receipt of a recovery notice issued by the tax authorities in accordance with the law, and has been subject to administrative penalty, shall not be investigated for criminal responsibility unless the person has been previously undergone criminal punishment or imposed twice or more administrative sanctions by the tax authorities due to tax evasion within the last five years."

4. One article is added after Article 224 of the Criminal Law as Article 224a, which reads as follows: "Any person who organizes or leads pyramid selling activities that are conducted under the guise of business activities such as selling goods or providing services, demanding participants to gain membership by paying fees, purchasing commodities or services or otherwise, arranging participants into different levels according to a certain order, directly or indirectly basing remuneration or the return of profits on the number of members introduced, inducing or coercing participants to continue to introduce others to join, thereby gaining money or property by deception and disrupting economic and social order, shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine; if the circumstances are serious, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than five years and be concurrently imposed with a fine."

5. Subparagraph (3) of Article 225 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "without approval of the relevant State department in charge, illegally conducting stock, futures or insurance business, or illegally engaging in fund payment and clearing business;"

6. Article 239 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any person who kidnaps another person for the purpose of extorting money or property, or kidnaps another person as a hostage, shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment and be concurrently imposed with a fine or confiscation of property; if the circumstances are relatively minor, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and be concurrently imposed with a fine.

"Where any person commits the crime mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and causes the death of the kidnapped person or kills the kidnapped person, such person shall be sentenced to death and be concurrently imposed with confiscation of property.

"Any person who steals a baby or an infant for the purpose of extorting money or property shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs."

7. One article is added after Article 253 of the Criminal Law as Article 253 a, which reads as follows: "Any staff member of a State organ, or an institution of finance, telecommunication, transportation, education, or health care, etc., who in violation of State regulations, sells or illegally provides citizens' personal information obtained by the aforesaid entity during the course of performing duties or providing services shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be imposed with a fine alone.

"Any person who illegally obtains the aforementioned information by theft or other means shall, if the circumstances are serious, be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

"Where an entity commits any of the crimes mentioned in the preceding two paragraphs, a fine shall be imposed on the entity, and the persons directly in charge of the entity and the other persons directly responsible for the crime shall be punished respectively in accordance with the provisions of the corresponding paragraphs."

8. One article is added after Article 262a of the Criminal Law as Article 262b, which reads as follows: "Any person who organizes minors to engage in theft, fraud, robbery, blackmail or other activities that violate the regulations for public security administration shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine; if the circumstances are serious, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not lass than three years but not more than seven years and be concurrently imposed with a fine."

9. Two paragraphs are added to Article 285 of the Criminal Law as the second and the third paragraph, which read as follows: "Any person who, in violation of State regulations, invades computer information systems other than the systems prescribed in the preceding paragraph, or uses other technological means to obtain data stored in, or processed or transmitted by that computer information system, or conducts illegal control of that computer information system shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be imposed with a fine alone; if the circumstances are especially serious, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and be concurrently imposed with a fine.

"Any person who provides programs or instruments used specially for invading or illegally controlling computer information systems, or knowingly provides programs or instruments to another person for committing illegal or criminal acts of invading or illegally controlling computer information systems shall, if the circumstances are serious, be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph."

10. One paragraph is added to Article 312 of the Criminal Law as the second paragraph, which read as follows: "Where an entity commits any of the crimes mentioned in the preceding paragraph, a fine shall be imposed on the entity, and the persons directly in charge of the entity and the other persons directly responsible for the crime shall be punished respectively in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph."

11. The first paragraph of Article 337 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any person who violates State regulations relating to animal and plant disease prevention and quarantine, thereby causing a major animal or plant epidemic or a major animal or plant epidemic hazard shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be imposed with a fine alone."

12. The second paragraph of Article 375 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any person who illegally manufactures, buys or sells uniforms of the armed forces shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be imposed with a fine alone."

One paragraph is added as the third paragraph, which reads as follows: "Any person who forges, steals, buys, sells, illegally provides or uses special symbols such as number plates of vehicles of the armed forces shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and be concurrently imposed with a fine, or shall be imposed with a fine alone; if the circumstances are especially serious, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and be concurrently imposed with a fine."

The original third paragraph serves as the fourth paragraph and is amended to read as follows: "Where an entity commits any of the crimes mentioned in the preceding second and third paragraphs, a fine shall be imposed on the entity, and the persons directly in charge of the entity and the other persons directly responsible for the crime shall be punished respectively in accordance with the provisions of the corresponding preceding paragraphs."

13. One article is added after Article 388 of the Criminal Law as Article 388a, which reads as follows: "Any of the close relatives of a State functionary or any other person closely related to a State functionary, who, through that State functionary's performance of duties or through another State functionary's performance of duties by taking advantage of that State functionary’s power of office or position, secures illegitimate benefits for an entrusting person, or extorts from the entrusting person or accepts the entrusting person's money or property shall, if the amount involved is relatively large or if there are other relatively serious circumstances, be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and be concurrently imposed with a fine; if the amount involved is large, or if there are other serious circumstances, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of more than three years but not more than seven years and be concurrently imposed with a fine; if the amount involved is especially large, or if there are other especially serious circumstances, such person shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than seven years and be concurrently imposed with a fine or confiscation of property.

"Any resigned State functionary, or any of the close relatives of or any other person closely related to that State functionary, who conducts the aforementioned acts by taking advantage of the original power of office or position of that resigned State functionary, shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph."

14. The first paragraph of Article 395 of the Criminal Law is amended to read as follows: "Any State functionary whose property or expenditure obviously exceeds his lawful income shall, where the difference is large, be ordered to explain the sources of his property; if such person cannot explain the sources, the part that exceeds his lawful income shall be regarded as illegal gains, and he shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; if the part that exceeds such person’s lawful income is especially large, he shall be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years. That part of the property exceeding such person’s lawful income shall be recovered."

15. This Amendment shall go into effect as of the date of promulgation.