The Ministry of Justice website - english.legalinfo.gov.cn - is designed to introduce China’s laws to English speakers and to show its progress in developing the law, while at the same time providing more information on the law for foreigners residing in China who need to know more about ways to make living, working, and traveling in the country easier.

The department is responsible for national publicity campaigns on the law and their implementations, inspecting the work of government work in relation to the law, and helping with the media coverage of legal affairs and foreign publicity campaigns on the law.

The Ministry of Justice is part of the State Council and handles national judicial administration. Its responsibilities include drafting guidelines, policies, laws and regulations concerning justice administration and devising department codes.

They are an important part of the Chinese government and the Central Government’s Ministry of Justice was established, on Oct 30, 1949, right after the founding of the People’s Republic, in accordance with the Organization Law. After the Constitution of the PRC was established in 1954, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under central government administration established their own justice bureaus, and prefectures and cities established justice administrative offices. These institutions were dissolved in 1959, and then re-established in 1979. The Ministry of Justice is under the State Council, while local justice administrations are a part of local government.

Currently, justice administrations are mainly responsible for prisons, re-education through labor programs, drug rehabilitation, community correctional programs, publicizing and providing education on the law, lawyers, public notaries, legal aid, mediation, assisting recently released inmates or re-education-through-labor detainees, national judicial exams, judicial expertise and assistance, legislation related to justice, grassroots justice administrative work, foreign exchanges and cooperation, personnel training, anti-corruption efforts, and theory, research, and publications related to justice.