Life imprisonment in China

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Life imprisonment in China" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Life imprisonment is one of the five principal punishments stipulated in Article 33 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. In the Criminal Law, there are 87 penalties for life imprisonment.

Life imprisonment also deprives political rights for life. If the sentence is commuted, the deprivation of political rights will be changed to three to ten years. (Article 57) The term of prosecution shall be 20 years for crimes with the maximum life imprisonment prescribed by law. The extension under special circumstances shall be subject to the approval of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. (Article 87, paragraph 4)

If there is no intentional crime at the end of the probation period after the death sentence is suspended, the sentence shall automatically be commuted to life imprisonment (or fixed-term imprisonment of twenty-five years). (Article 50) Life imprisonment may be commuted, and the actual sentence shall not be less than 13 years. If the death penalty with a suspension of execution is converted to life imprisonment, the actual execution shall not be less than 25 years (Article 78). The actual time limit for execution shall be calculated by the commutation award (Article 80). Article 78 of the Criminal Law stipulates the conditions for commutation. If a person has been sentenced to life imprisonment for more than 13 years, he may be released on parole under certain conditions. No parole shall be granted to recidivists and other serious violent crimes who are sentenced to life imprisonment (Article 81). The probation period for parole of life imprisonment is 10 years (Article 83). If the death penalty is suspended for corruption, the court may concurrently sentence him to life imprisonment after the expiration of the sentence, without commutation or parole.

On November 15, 2016, the Supreme People's Court issued the Provisions on the Specific Application of Laws in Handling Cases of Commutation and Parole, which stipulates that any prisoner convicted for corruption and bribery who are imprisoned for life cannot be commuted or paroled again. This regulation come into force on January 1, 2017.^[1]

Although life imprisonment does not exist as a mandatory punishment in China, the following crimes may carry life imprisonment: