Law of The People's Republic Of China on Administrative Penalty

(Adopted at the Fourth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress on March 17, 1996; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending Some Laws adopted at the 10th Session of the Eleventh Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on August 27, 2009; and amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Amending Eight Laws including the Judges Law at the 29th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on September 1, 2017)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Types and Creation of Administrative Penalty

Chapter III Organs Imposing Administrative Penalty

Chapter IV Jurisdiction and Application of Administrative Penalty

Chapter V Decision on An Administrative Penalty

Section 1 Summary Procedure

Section 2 Ordinary Procedure

Section 3 Procedrue of Hearing

Chapter VI Enforcement of Administrative Penalty

Chapter VII Legal Responsibility

Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 Pursuant to the Constitution, this Law is enacted for the purpose of standardizing creation and imposition of administrative penalty, ensuring and supervising the effective exercise of administration by administrative organs, safeguarding public interests and public order, and protecting the lawful rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations.

Article 2 Creation and imposing of administrative penalty shall be governed by this Law.

Article 3 Where administrative penalty needs to be imposed on citizens, legal persons or other organizations for their violations of the order of administration, it shall be prescribed by laws, rules or regulations pursuant to this Law and imposed by administrative organs in compliance with the procedure prescribed by this Law.
Administrative penalty that is not imposed in accordance with law or in compliance with legal procedures shall be invalid.

Article 4 Administrative penalty shall be imposed in adherence to the principles of fairness and openness.
Creation and imposition of administrative penalty shall be based on facts and shall be in correspondence with the facts, nature and seriousness of the violations of law and damage done to society.
Regulations on administrative penalty to be imposed for violations of law must be published; those which are not published shall not be taken as the basis for administrative penalty.

Article 5 In imposing administrative penalty and setting to rights illegal acts, penalty shall be combined with education, so that citizens, legal persons and other organizations shall become aware of the importance of observing law.

Article 6 Citizens, legal persons and other organizations on whom administrative penalty is imposed by administration organs shall have the right to state their cases and the right to defend themselves; those who refuse to accept administrative penalty shall have the right to apply for administrative reconsideration or bring an administrative lawsuit in accordance with law.
Citizens, legal persons and other organizations that have suffered damage due to administrative penalty imposed by administrative organs in violation of law shall have the right to demand compensation in accordance with law.

Article 7 Citizens, legal persons and other organizations that are subjected to administrative penalty because of their violations of law shall, in accordance with law, bear civil liability for damage done to others by their illegal acts.
Where an illegal act constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with law; no administrative penalty shall be imposed in place of criminal penalty.

Chapter II Types and Creation of Administrative Penalty

Article 8 Types of administrative penalty shall include:

(1) disciplinary warning;

(2) fine;

(3) confiscation of illegal gains or confiscation of unlawful property or things of value;

(4) ordering for suspension of production or business;

(5) temporary suspension or rescission of permit or temporary suspension or rescission of license;

(6) administrative detention; and

(7) others as prescribed by laws and administrative rules and regulations.

Article 9 Different types of administrative penalty may be created by law.
Administrative penalty involving restriction of freedom of person shall only be created by law.

Article 10 Administrative penalties, with the exception of restricting freedom of person, may be created by administrative rules and regulations.
Where it is necessary to formulate specific provisions, in administrative rules and regulations, regarding violations of law for which administrative penalties have been formulated in laws, it must be done within the limits of the acts subject to administrative penalty and the types and range of such penalty as prescribed by laws.

Article 11 Administrative penalties, with the exception of restriction of freedom of person and rescission of business license of an enterprise, may be created in local regulations.
Where it is necessary to formulate specific provisions, in local regulations, regarding violations of law for which administrative penalties have been formulated in laws and administrative rules and regulations, it must be done within the limits of the acts subject to administrative penalty and the types and range of such penalty as prescribed by laws and administrative rules and regulations.

Article 12 The ministries and commissions under the State Council may, in the rules they enact, formulate specific provisions within the limits of the acts subject to administrative penalty and the types and range of such penalty as prescribed by laws and administrative rules and regulations.
With regard to violations of administration order against which no laws or administrative rules and regulations have been enacted, the ministries and commissions under the State Council may create administrative penalty of disciplinary warning or a certain amount of fine in the rules they enact, as stipulated in the preceding paragraph. The specific amounts of fine shall be laid down by the State Council.
The State Council may authorize the departments directly under it that have the power of administrative penalty to formulate provisions on administrative penalty in accordance with the first and second paragraph of this Article.

Article 13 The people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, of the cities where the people's governments of provinces and autonomous regions are located, and of the larger cities approved as such by the State Council may, within the limits of the acts subject to administrative penalty and the types and range of such penalty as prescribed by laws and regulations, formulate specific provisions in the rules they enact.
With regard to violations of administration order against which no laws or regulations have been enacted, the people's governments may create administrative penalty of disciplinary warning or certain amount of fine in the rules they enact, as stipulated in the preceding paragraph. The specific amounts of fine shall be laid down by the standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Article 14 No administrative penalties shall be created in any other regulatory documents in addition to the ones as stipulated in Articles 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of this Law.

Chapter III Organs Imposing Adminisitrative Penalty

Article 15 Administrative penalty shall be imposed by administrative organs that have the power of administrative penalty within the scope of their statutory functions and powers.

Article 16 The State Council or the people's government of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government that is empowered by the State Council may decide to have an administrative organ exercise other administrative organs' power of administrative penalty. However, the power of administrative penalty involving restriction of freedom of person shall only be exercised by the public security organs.

Article 17 Organizations that are authorized by laws and regulations to exercise the power of administering public affairs may impose administrative penalty within the scope of their powers as authorized by law.

Article 18 In accordance with the provisions of laws, regulations or rules, an administrative organ may, within the scope of its powers as prescribed by law, entrust an organization that meets the conditions stipulated in Article 19 of this Law with imposing administrative penalty. An administrative organ may not entrust other organizations or individuals with imposing administrative penalty.
The entrusting administrative organ shall be responsible for supervising the imposition of administrative penalty by the entrusted organization and shall bear legal responsibility for the consequences of the imposition.
The entrusted organization shall, within the scope of authorization, impose administrative penalty in the name of the entrusting administrative organ, and may not further entrust any other organization or individual with imposing the administrative penalty.

Article 19 The organization to be entrusted shall meet the following conditions:

(1) to be an institution in charge of public affairs established in accordance with law;

(2) to be staffed with personnel who are familiar with relevant laws, regulations and rules and are experienced in the work; and

(3) to have the conditions for organizing and conducting the technical tests or technical appraisal that are needed for testing or appraising illegal acts.

Chapter IV Jurisdiction and Application of Administrative Penalty

Article 20 Administrative penalty shall come under the jurisdiction of an administrative organ having the power of administrative penalty of a local people's government at or above the county level in the place where the illegal act is committed, except as otherwise prescribed by laws or administrative rules and regulations.

Article 21 If a dispute arises over jurisdiction between administrative organs, the matter shall be reported to their common administrative organ at the next higher level for designation of jurisdiction.

Article 22 If an illegal act constitutes a crime, the administrative organ must transfer the case to a judicial organ for investigation of criminal responsibility according to law.