CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Alan Zhou, Jacky Li, Weiwei Gu, Steven Zhu and Jenny Chen, Global Law Office
levels, such as the Rules of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Protecting the Citizens’ Tip-Off Rights. Enforcement authorities are required to keep whistle-blowers’ identities confidential throughout the reporting handling process. The authorities are also required to take measures to ensure the safety of the whistle-blowers and their close relatives whenever and wherever necessary. Retaliation against whistle-blowers is entirely prohib - ited by law, and legal liabilities such as administrative penalty, criminal detention or imprisonment can be imposed. 6.5 Incentives Provided to Whistle-Blowers On 9 April 2016, the Supreme People’s Procurator - ate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued Several Provisions on the Protection and Reward of Whistle-Blowers of Duty- Related Crimes (the “Provisions”), improving the protection and reward system for whistle-blowers who do not do so anonymously, in relation to duty- related crimes. According to the Provisions, rewards for non-anonymous whistle-blowers of duty-related crimes shall be granted by the People’s Procurator - ates. Generally, the amount of reward for each case shall not exceed CNY200,000; where the informant has made significant contributions, upon approval, a reward of more than CNY200,000 (but not exceeding CNY500,000) may be granted. Where the informant has made particularly significant contributions, upon approval of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the amount of reward shall not be limited to the aforemen- tioned amount. On 30 July 2021, the State Administration for Mar - ket Regulation (SAMR) and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Interim Measures for Rewards for Whistle-blower Reports of Major Violations in the Field of Market Regulation (the “Measures”) to improve the system of rewarding whistle-blowing against major violations in the field of market regulation. The Meas - ures took effect on 1 December 2021. According to the Measures, rewards for whistle-blowing against major violations in the market regulation field shall be given by market regulatory authorities at all levels. The rewards for whistle-blowing are classified into three grades, based on the facts of the violation, relevant
evidence and consistency between the content of the whistle-blowing and the facts, as well as the severity of the whistle-blowing matters. Whistle-blowers shall be rewarded with 1%, 3% or 5% of the confiscated fines, respectively, depending on the grade. For cases without fines or confiscated funds, the amounts of rewards from Grade I to Grade III shall not be less than CNY5,000, CNY3,000 or CNY1,000, respectively. For any matter reported by employees, the reward criteria may be increased correspondingly. The upper limit of the reward for whistle-blowing for each case is CNY1 million. Compared with the Provisions issued on 9 April 2016, the Measures increase the amounts of rewards for whistle-blowing to encourage the public to actively report major violations. There is criminal and administrative enforcement of anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws in China. Civ - il prosecution of such offences is not applicable in China. 7.2 Enforcement Bodies From the perspective of administrative law, offenc - es with respect to bribery and corruption are mainly investigated and penalised by the SAMR and local AMRs. The SAMR was established on 21 March 2018, and undertakes the merged responsibilities previously held by multiple authorities. From the perspective of criminal law, illegal acts not involving public officials shall be investigated and han - dled by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) and trans - ferred to the prosecution department of the People’s Procuratorate (the “Procuratorate”) for prosecution. Criminal cases involving public officials were previ - ously investigated and prosecuted by the Procu - ratorate (the anti-corruption division of which was responsible for investigations, while the prosecution division was responsible for prosecution). The author - ity for criminal investigation has been transitioned to the Supervisory Commission in accordance with the Supervision Law that entered into force on 20 March 2018 and the amendments that took effect on 1 June 7. Enforcement Trends 7.1 Enforcement
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