# Judicial system of China

The judicial branch is one of three branches of the government, not the state structure, in the People's Republic of China, along with the executive and legislative branches. Strictly speaking, it refers to the activities of the People's Court system. According to the Constitution law of China, China does not adopt the "separation of power" system as in modern democratic countries, the People's court does not enjoy a separate and independent power, but subject to the control of the People's Assembly. Constitutionally, the court system is intended to exercise judicial power independently and free of interference from administrative organs, public organizations, and individuals. Yet the constitution simultaneously emphasizes the principle of the "leadership of the Communist Party." Hong Kong and Macau have separate court systems due to their historical status as British and Portuguese colonies, respectively.

## Quotes

* The biggest advantage the Chinese government has over us is that it doesn’t have to contend with constitutional democracy. The second-biggest advantage it has is that it doesn’t have to be hypocritical, and pretend that it is not doing, and would not do, what it clearly and unapologetically is.
** Rod Dreher, "China’s AI Present, America’s AI Future" (4 August 2020), The American Conservative
* The day I arrived was about a week after the July 9 crackdown on [civil] rights lawyers. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was a watershed moment in Chinese politics. It shaped the China I would experience over the next several years.
** Emily Feng, in an interview by Radio Free Asia (February 22, 2025)
* Chinese people have no recourse to anything like an independent judiciary. The Communist Party decides if you’re guilty or innocent. The conviction rate stands in excess of 98 per cent. Torture and forced confessions are commonplace. Xi has lately embarked on a vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation of workers’ rights activists, ethnic and religious minorities, and feminists. Scores of human rights lawyers have been rounded up and jailed.
** Terry Glavin, "China is no Friend to Canada" (7 April 2017), MacLeans, Canada: Rogers Media
* Chinese Communists were no more inclined to respect individual liberties when they ran one of the poorest and most insular nations in the world. If anything, they acted with even more brutality. No state has ever murdered, tortured, imprisoned, and terrorized more of its own people.
** David Harsayani, "R.I.P. Hong Kong" (12 August 2020), National Review
* According to statistics compiled in 2003, only 1 to 5 percent of trials in China have witnesses. The conviction rate in criminal trials is 99.7 percent. The criminal code names sixty-eight crimes that are punishable by death, including embezzlement, counterfeiting, bribery, pimping, stealing gasoline, and selling harmful foodstuffs. Exact annual figures for the number of executions in China is not known, although it appears to be in the thousands. Amnesty International's cautious estimate for 2005 was 1,770. The majority of the world's executions take place in China. In March 2004, the government introduced traveling "execution vans."
** David Wallechinsky, Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators (2006), p. 2
* The CCP has long presented the Chinese citizenry with a strict social contract: the CCP enjoys an absolute political monopoly in exchange for providing steadily increasing standards of living. That means no elections. That means no unsanctioned protests. That means never establishing an independent legal or court system which might challenge CCP whim. It means firmly and permanently defining “China’s” interests as those of the CCP.
** Peter Zeihan, "A Failure of Leadership, Part III: The Beginning of the End of China" (15 May 2020), Zeihan on Geopolitics

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Judicial system of China on Wikipedia