Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:37:08.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Policing, Punishment, and the Individual: Criminal Justice in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Review Essay
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1995 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For purposes of this article, the “social control system” will be understood as referring to the public security (police), procuratorate, courts, and the labor reform (prison) system and the laws, regulations, and policies concerning their task of prevention and control of deviant behavior. This narrow definition includes household registration (which is administered by the public security offices), crime prevention programs, administrative sanctions against minor offenders, and the criminal justice system. In the interest of space, Party discipline and psychiatric hospitals will not be included in this discussion.Google Scholar

2 Amnesty International, China: Violations of Human Rights: Prisoners of Conscience and the Death Penalty in the People's Republic of China (London: Amnesty International Publications, 1984); id., China: Torture and III-Treatment of Prisoners (New York: Amnesty International, 1987); Asia Watch, Torture in China (New York: Asia Watch, July 1990); Harry Hongda Wu, Laogai—the Chinese Gulag (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1992) (“Wu, Laogai”); Harry Wu & Carolyn Wakeman, Bitter Winds: A Memoir of My Years in China's Gulag (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994).Google Scholar

3 Harry Wu estimates that from 1980 to 1989, four to six million prisoners were forcibly retained for labor at labor reform and labor reeducation units. Wu, Laogai 113.Google Scholar

4 This developmental scheme is sketched out in Derk Bodde & Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China 17–29 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967).Google Scholar

5 Stephen B. Young, “The Concept of Justice in Pre-Imperial China,” in Richard W. Wilson, Sidney L. Greenblatt, & Amy Auerbacher Wilson, eds., Moral Behavior in Chinese Society 40 (New York: Praeger, 1981) (“Young, ‘Concept of justice’”).Google Scholar

6 Zhang Jinfan, Lin Zhong, & Wang Zhigang, Zhongguo xingfashi xinlun (A New History of Chinese Criminal Law) 5, 30–31 (Beijing: Renmin daxue chubanshe, 1992).Google Scholar

7 A. F. P. Hulsewe, Remnants of Ch'in Law 108, 125, 194–95 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985).Google Scholar

8 See Young, “Concept of Justice” at 38; Richard H. Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture 4–5 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971); Andrew J. Nathan, “Sources of Chinese Rights Thinking,” in R. Randle Edwards, Louis Henkin, & Andrew J. Nathan, eds., Human Rights in Contemporary China 138 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

9 For a critical discussion of Discipline and Punish, see David Garland, “Foucault's Discipline and Punish: An Exposition and Critique,” 1986 ABF Res. J. 847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 See P. Spierenburg, The Spectacle of Suffering: Executions and the Evolution of Repression (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); John Langbein, Torture and the Law of Proof (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977). J. G. Merquior, Foucault 97 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), concludes that “Foucault definitely prefers ideological drama to the wayward contingencies of actual history.”Google Scholar

11 This overreliance on a single type of source is ironic, because Dutton attacks other (unnamed) “Sinologists” for the same failing, and for producing “reportage” rather than serious scholarship (at 204, 320–21).Google Scholar

12 Some of these problems are documented in reports by Amnesty International and Asia Watch, and in Wu, Laogui (cited in note 2). See also Sifabu yanjiusuo yunei anjian yanjiu ketizu, “Jin shinianlai quanguo yunei anjian de tedian ji jinhou de duice yanjiu” (Research on the Characteristics of Cases inside the Prisons throughout the Country and Present and Future Countermeasures), 5 Fanzui yu guizao yanjiu (Studies in Crime and Reform) 12 (1990); Li Yuqian, “Danqian yunei fanzui huodong xin dongxiang ji qi duice” (Current Developments in Crime in the Prisons and Its Counter-measures), in Sifabu falu zhengce yanjiushi, laogaiju, ed., Laogai laojiao gongzuo de lihn yu shijian (The Theory and Practice of Labor Reform and Labor Reeducation) 140 (Shijiazhuang: Falu chubanshe, 1988); “Gonganbu, sifabu guanyu jianjue yifa chengchu yi zican shouduan taobi chengchu de fanzui de tongzhi” (Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Justice Circular regarding Resolute Punishment according to Law of Criminal Elements Using Self-Mutilation as a Means of Escaping Punishment). in Li Yanping, ed., zhongfuca renmin gongheguo falu guifanxing jieshi jicheng (zengbuben) (Compendium of Normative Legal Interpretations of the PRC, Supp. Vol.) 742–43 (Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe, 1991); Zhu Yongling, “Laogai changsuo xing fanzui de biaoxian xingshi ji yufang” (The Forms of Manifestation and the Prevention of Sex Crimes in Labor Reform Institutions), 3 Fanzui yu guizao yanjiu 24 (1991).Google Scholar

13 Xinhua cidian (New China Dictionary) (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1980); Hunying cidian (A Chinese-English Dictionary) (Ekijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1978).Google Scholar

14 Xinhua cidian (New China Dictionary).Google Scholar

15 Lung-kee Sun, zhorrgguo wenhun de shenceng jiegou (The Deep Structure of Chinese Culture) 14–15 (Taibei: Tangshan chubanshe, 1990) (“Lungkee Sun, Zhongguo wenhua de shenceng jiegou”); Lung-kee Sun, “Contemporary Chinese Culture: Structure and Emotionality,' 26 Australian J. Chinese Affairs 1, 2–3 (July 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Lung-kee Sun, Zhongguo wenhua de shenceng jiegou 82–83.Google Scholar

17 Id. at 40.Google Scholar

18 Id. at 71–74; Lung-kee Sun, 26 Australian J. Chinese Affairs at 5–6.Google Scholar

19 “‘Zhonggong zhongyang guanyu yanli daji xingshi fanzui huodong de jueding’ (jielu)” (Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Regarding Striking Severe Blows against Criminal Activities [excerpts]), in Dazu xian jianchazhi (Gazetteer of the Dazu County Procuratorate) 132–33 (Dazu County, Sichuan: Dazu County Procuratorate, 1988) (“Decision of the Central Committee”).Google Scholar

20 Yang Dunxian, ed., Xingfaxue gailun (An Outline of Criminal Law) 159 (Beijing: Guangming ribao chubanshe, 1985); Zhongguo renmin daxue hluxi xingfa jiaoyanshi, ed., Xingfagelun (xiudingben) (The Special Provisions of the Criminal Law, rev. ed.) 407 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1982).Google Scholar

21 Under SAPA, the public security offices may impose fines of up to 200 yuan or up to 15 days of detention for minor offenses. The regulations concerning labor reeducation allow the police to impose sentences of up to 2 years—extendable to 3—for more serious infractions. See “Zhonghua renmin gongheguo zhi'an guanli chufa tiaoli” (Security Administration Punishment Act of the PRC), art. 6, in Wang Huai'an, Gu Ming, Lin Zhun, & Sun Wanzhong, eds., Zhonghua renmin Gongheguo falu quunshu (Complete Laws of the People's Republic of China) 1529 (Changchun: Jilin renminchubanshe, 1989). Labr reeducation is discussed in Wu, Laogui 91–97 (cited in note 3).Google Scholar

22 The anticrime campaign is discussed in Jean-Louis Rocca, L'empire er son Milieu 100–107 (Paris: Plon, 1991), and in Harold Tanner, “Chinese Rape Law in Comparative” Perspective,” 31 Australian J. Chinese Affairs 12–16 (Jan. 1994).Google Scholar

23 Decision of the Central Committee at 132–33 (cited in note 19).Google Scholar

24 Legal interpretations are normative documents issued by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Justice, and other state organs. They deal with concrete questions concerning the application of law and are essential to both the day-today business of the courts as well as to the direction of the criminal justice system during campaigns. For a discussion of legal interpretation and its shaky constitutional basis, see Kong Xiaohong, “Legal Interpretation in china,” 6 Conn. J. Int'l L. 491 (Spring 1991).Google Scholar

25 Ma Qibin & Chen Wenbin, eds., Zhongguo gongchadang zhizheng sishinian (Forty Years of Rule by the Chinese Communist Party) 525 (Ekijing: Zhonggong dangshi ziliao chubanshe, 1989).Google Scholar

26 “Quanguo fayuan yuanzhang zuotanhui zaijing zhaokai” (National Conference of Presidents of People's Courts Held in Beijing), 9 Renmin sifa (People's Adjudication) 2 (1984); Wei Pingyong, “Lun zonghe zhili fanzui de fazhi xitong gongcheng” (On the Systematic Engineering of the Legal System in the Comprehensive Control of Crime), 6 Zhengfa buntan (Tribune of Political Science & Law) 49, 50 (1985); Bi Xiaonan, “Queyou mingxian haozhuan, mianlin xinde wenti” (Truly a Turn for the Better, but Facing New Problems), 1 Renmin sifa 10 (1987).Google Scholar

27 Zhongguo falu nianjian, 1987 (China Law Yearbook, 1987) at 886–87 (Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 1987); Zhongguo falu nianjian, 1991 at 942 (Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 1991).Google Scholar

28 Tanner, 31 Australian J. Chinese Affairs 9–16.Google Scholar

29 Chen Yu, Tang Guofang, Xu Shiying, & Chen Xiuping, “Yanda hou xinshou nufn de qingkuang he tedian” (The Situation and Characteristics of Women Offenders Newly Accepted after the Anticrime Campaign) 197, 207, in Jiangsusheng faxuehui qingshaonian fanzui yanjiuhui & Jiangsusheng shehui kexueyuan zhengfa yanjiusuo, eds., Qingshaonian fanzui yunjiu (Studies in Youth Crime) (Nanjing: n.p., 1987).Google Scholar

30 Li Yuqian, “Dangqian yunei fanzui huodong xin dongxiang ji qi duice” (Current developments in crime in the prisons and countermeasures against them) 138 Sifabu falu zhengce yanjiushi, laogaiju, ed., Laogai laojiao gongzuo de lilun yu shijiun 138 (cited in note 12).Google Scholar

31 “Gonganbu guanyu zhuanfa Beijingshi gonganju ‘guanyu changkuang qiye danwei luoshi shehui zhi'an zonghe zhili qingkuang de diaocha baogao’ de tongzhi” (Ministry of Public Security Circular Transmitting the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's “Report on Investigation of carrvtng out of Comprehensive Management of Public Security in Factory and Mining Enterprise Units”) in Xie Anshan & Yan Li, eds., Zonghe zhili shehui zhi'an gongzuo shouce (Work Handbook on Comprehensive Management of Public Security) 44 (Changchun: Jilin renminchubanshe, 1986).Google Scholar

32 Zhang Fanshen, “Qiantan Zhongguo laogai gongmo tese de yuanquan” (On the Sources of the Theoretical Uniqueness of China's Labor Reform System), 3 Fanzui yu gaizao yanjiu 26 (1993).Google Scholar

33 Jinanshi gonganju, “Luoshi jiceng zhi'an baowei gongzuo de hao banfa” (A Good Method of carrvlng out Base-Level Public Security Work), in Gonganbu bangongting, ed., Zonghe zhili shehui zhi'an jingyan xuanbian, dierji (Selected Experiences in Comprehensive Management of Public Security, vol. 2) 19 (Ekijing: Qunzhong chubanshe, 1986).Google Scholar

34 Anhuisheng gong'anting, “Zhibiao zhiben yiqizhua” (Cure Both the Symptoms and the Roots), in Gonganbu bangongting, ed., Zonghe zhili shehui zhian jingyan xuanbian, dierji, 25–26 (cited in note 33).Google Scholar

35 Yang Diansheng, ed., Laodong gaizao faxue (Labor Reform Law) 31 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1991).Google Scholar

36 Yang Diansheng, Laodong gaizao faxue 31–32, 192; Zhejiangsheng sifating laogaiju, “Guanyu xingman shifang renyuan gaizao zhiliang de diaocha baogao” (Report on Investigation into the Quality of Reform of Prisoners Released on Completion of Sentence), in Sifabu falu zhengce yanjiushi, ed., Laogui laojiao gogzuo de lilun yu shijian 373 (cited in note 12).Google Scholar

37 Sifabu yanjiusuo ‘zuifan xin qingkuang yanjiu’ ketizu, “Xin de lishi shiqi zaiya zuifan de xin qingkuang, xin tedian” (The New Sitation and Characteristics of Criminals in Custody in the New Historical Era), 4 Fanzui yu gaizao yanjiu 1 (1990); Guangdongsheng laogaiju, “Xin shiqi dui zuifan de zai renshi ji gaizao duice” (The Recognition and Reform Counter-measures for Criminals in the New Era), 5 Fanzui yu gaizao yanjiu 25 (1989).Google Scholar

38 Sifabu yanjiusuo ‘zuifan xin qingkuang yanjiu’ ketizu, 4 Fanzui yu gaizao yanjiu 1, 3 (cited in note 37).Google Scholar

39 Wang Yanxin & Zhen Jianping, “Gaige yu wanshan xingshi renyuan anzhi jiuye zhidu de zonghe sikao” (Comprehensive Consideration on the Reform and Improvement of the System for Settlement and Employment of Released Prisoners), 1 Fanzui yu gaizao yanjiu 47 (1993).Google Scholar

40 I. Wibowo, “The Changing Roles of the Village Party Secretary,” 1488 China News Analysis 1, 5–6 (1 July 1993).Google Scholar

41 Wang Ge, “Dangqian nongcun shehui wenti yu shehui guanli wenti jianxi” (Analysis of Current Social Problems and Questions of Social Management in Rural Areas), 5 Shehuixue yu shehui diaocha (Sociology & Social Investigation) 27, 30 (1988).Google Scholar

42 Wang Ge, 5 Shehuixue yu shehui diaocha at 30 (cited in note 41).Google Scholar