Protection for minors enhanced

China is continuing to strengthen judicial protection for minors, maintaining a "zero tolerance" stance toward crimes against children while applying a balanced approach combining punishment, education and rehabilitation for juvenile offenders, according to work reports from the nation's top judicial authorities.

Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People's Court, and Ying Yong, prosecutor-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, presented their annual work reports on Monday at the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, for deliberation.

According to the SPP report, prosecutions for crimes against minors and cases involving juvenile suspects both declined in 2025, falling 2.2 percent and 9.8 percent year-on-year, respectively — the first simultaneous drop in five years.

Prosecutors charged 73,000 people last year for crimes infringing on minors' rights. Courts nationwide concluded 40,000 cases involving crimes against minors in 2025, down 1.8 percent from the previous year, and convicted 44,000 offenders.

Courts also barred 1,199 individuals from working in positions involving close contact with minors and imposed the death penalty in extremely serious cases involving severe harm to children.

For juvenile offenders, prosecutors continued to apply a policy combining punishment with education and rehabilitation. Prosecutors charged 56,000 minors, while 16,000 juveniles involved in minor offenses who showed remorse were granted conditional nonprosecution.

For particularly serious cases, authorities pursued accountability. The SPP approved the prosecution of 24 offenders ages 12 to 14 for severe violent crimes, underscoring that serious offenses must be punished, the report said.

According to an amendment to China's Criminal Law that took effect on March 1, 2021, children ages 12 to 14 can be held criminally liable for intentional homicide or intentional injury causing death or severe disability through particularly cruel means, subject to approval for prosecution by the SPP. The provision conditionally lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 for particularly serious violent crimes.

The SPC report said that courts continued to apply a balanced approach of strictness and leniency. A 14-year-old student who killed a classmate was sentenced to life imprisonment, while 2,356 juveniles convicted of serious violent crimes received prison terms of more than five years. At the same time, 5,822 minors who committed relatively minor offenses received more lenient punishment.

Through a combination of education, rehabilitation and corrective measures, the previously rising trend in juvenile crime has been effectively curbed, the report said.

Authorities have also strengthened a coordinated child protection system. Courts handled criminal, civil and administrative cases involving minors in an integrated manner to better align the country's "six protection" framework, which involves families, schools, society, the online sector, government departments and the judiciary.

Procuratorial authorities also worked with other agencies to improve systems for handling juvenile misconduct, including expanding specialized schools, strengthening graded intervention and correction mechanisms, and promoting policies such as mandatory reporting in cases involving minors and background checks for jobs involving close contact with children.

Yang Jianbo, director of the SPP's Law and Policy Research Office, said the simultaneous decline in crimes against minors and juvenile offenses sends a "positive signal", reflecting progress in both protecting minors and preventing youth crime.

Yang said that prevention is a form of protection, and punishment can help rehabilitate juvenile offenders. Those whose crimes involve malicious intent or cause serious harm are punished in accordance with the law.