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The sentence bargaining system has attracted great attention from the public since arrangements were made during the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Party Central Committee. What changes have been brought about by the sentence bargaining system to the criminal justice system? What achievements have been made in advancing the modernization of national governance? In the application of the system, how can the judiciary strike a balance between punishment and deterrence and tolerance and incentive to ensure fairness and justice? Thank you.

Chen Guoqing:

Thank you for your questions. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, as the economic society has developed comprehensively, China's public security has continuously improved. The pattern of crimes committed across the country has changed remarkably with a continuous decrease in serious crimes and a constant increased proportion of 80% taken up by misdemeanor cases. Since the formal establishment of the system of sentence bargaining in the October of 2018, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the close coordination between procuratorial organs and other political legal organs, we have actively implemented the system. At present, the application rate of this system has maintained above 85%. It's fair to say that we have achieved normalized application of such a system, which has played a major role in accelerating the upgrading of the mode of criminal procedure to be collaborative and the transformation from focusing on "criminal punishment" to "good governance" so as to promote the modernization of national governance.

The effects of this system have been mainly demonstrated in the following aspects. Firstly, the punishment of crime has been implemented in a more effective and timely manner. Since the suspects and defendants pleaded guilty and accepted their punishments, judicial organs could ascertain the facts of the crimes in a timely manner. It has also been helpful to divide and disintegrate crimes. Secondly, it has played an important role in promoting social harmony and stability. The system of sentence bargaining is conducive to resolve social problems and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of victims. At present, it has become a norm for defendants to plead guilty as the appeal rate reduced to 3.8 percent after the first trial, 15.4 percentage points lower than that of other criminal cases. Thirdly, the rights of the concerned parties have been better protected. A total of 3.339 million suspects and defendants have received legal assistance from duty lawyers in accordance with the law. The application rate of non-custodial coercive measures has continuously increased. Procurotorial organs have provided judicial aid to 72,000 victims who live in trouble resulting from criminal violations. Fourth, fairness and justice have been promoted in a better and faster way. We have shortened the time from investigation to trial for misdemeanor cases that are suitable for the system of sentence bargaining. Among those cases, the percentage taken up by the ones that are applicable to quick judging procedure and summary procedure reached 74.6%, greatly improving the efficiency of litigation and saving judicial resources. 

Certainly, it should be emphasized that the system of sentence bargaining doesn't mean uniform leniencies for all cases. In dealing with sentence bargaining cases, procurotorial organs should fully and accurately implement the criminal policy of combining punishment with leniency. For those crimes that seriously endangered national security and public security, serious violent crimes, gang crimes, crimes harming vulnerable groups such as women and children, and other crimes with strong subjective malignancy and egregious circumstances, we should implement severe punishments regardless of a guilty plea or punishment acceptance. For those misdemeanor cases with circumstances of severe publishment, we should deal with those strictly and cautiously grasp the scope of lenient punishment. Thank you.