CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Haitao (Harry) Liu, King & Wood Mallesons
Typical cases that have been publicised also cover similar crimes including cases concerning bid-rigging. According to the report published by the Supreme People’s Court in July 2025 summarising trial data from the first half of that year, the total number of criminal cases adjudicated by courts at all levels dropped by 10.4%, and the number of people convicted dropped by 9.03% compared to the same period last year. On the other hand, criminal cases relating to the crime of disrupting the socialist market economic order have increased by 2.65%. The number of bid-rigging cases accepted by the court has increased by 30.44%. As discussed in the China Trends & Developments article in the 2024 edition of this guide, white-collar crimes are mostly reflected in the chapter of the Crime of Disrupting the Socialist Market Economic Order of the Criminal Law. Although there is no specific definition of “white-collar crime” in the law, the increased num - bers can reasonably be thought to echo law enforce - ment trends in white-collar crimes. Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Handling of Securities and Futures Criminal and Illegal Cases Following the interpretation in July 2019 setting out different thresholds for various crimes in the securities and futures market, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Pub - lic Security and the China Securities Regulatory Com - mission jointly issued the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Handling of Securities and Futures Criminal and Illegal Cases (the “new interpretation”) in April 2024. The new interpretation enhances law enforcement in relation to securities and futures-relat - ed crimes by announcing a policy of zero-tolerance and enforcing severe punishment in accordance with the law. Specifically: “Intensify investigation and punishment, adhere to the principle of referring all cases that should be referred, arresting those who should be arrested and prosecuting those who should be prosecuted, strictly control the application of probation, intensify the application and enforcement of monetary penalty, maximise the recovery of illicit gains and compensa - tion for losses, and improve the whole-chain crack - down and all-round accountability system”.
As part of the law enforcement policy, “combining leniency with rigidity” is particularly stressed in the annual report of the Supreme People’s Procurator - ate in March of 2025. “We should fully and accurately implement the criminal policy of leniency and sever - ity in combination, being strict where appropriate and lenient where necessary, and imposing penal - ties commensurate with the crime”. Just one month after the release of the annual report, the policy of law enforcement in the securities and futures market already reflects this strict tone. The inevitable infer - ence is that crimes in the securities and futures mar - ket, even after many years of joint efforts by different law enforcement authorities to cleanse the market and rectify irregular business behaviour and serious speculative conduct, remain rampant rather than con - trolled. The number of people prosecuted for crimes in the securities and futures market in 2023 was 346, while this number has more than doubled to 825 in 2024. Although the number for the first half of 2025 is not yet available, it would not be a surprise if it has continued to increase. Continuing crack-down on corruption The anti-corruption storm in healthcare and other industries has not yet come to an end. The data dis - closed in the annual report by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate is startling. In 2024, Supervision Com - missions at various different levels have transferred 27,000 people for crimes by state personnel for prosecution, and among these, 24,000 people were prosecuted, a year-on-year increase of 37.8% and 34.9%, respectively. According to the report, 5,081 people from the finance, energy, pharmaceutical and infrastructure construction sectors were prosecuted. Singled-out numbers for the year of 2023 in financial and pharmaceutical industrial sectors were separately 348 and 580. The number of people prosecuted for bribe-giving rose to 3,068, an increase of 18.3% year- on-year. According to the Supreme People’s Court’s report, the courts have concluded the trial of 30,000 cases of corruption, bribery and other crimes by state personnel involving 33,000 people, marking a signifi - cant growth of 22.3%, and the number of concluded case trials on bribe-giving reflected a year-on-year increase of 18.6%. These increased numbers, espe - cially when compared to the drop seen in figures relat - ing to prosecuting and adjudicating other ordinary
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