LIANG LUWEN/FOR CHINA DAILY

July 17, 2024 -- After being held at knifepoint and having his life threatened, a man surnamed Li from Jianghan district in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, was later charged with causing intentional injury following his fighting back against his attacker to defend himself, which caused his attacker to be wounded. Over the following two months, the charge was later overturned on the grounds of it being considered justifiable defense.

Rewinding the clock to the evening of June 30 last year, a man surnamed Liu got into a heated argument with fellow players at a mahjong parlor. To prevent further escalation, the parlor's staff persuaded Liu to leave.

The following afternoon, Liu decided to confront the parlor's owner face-to-face to "seek justice".

He first went to a fast-food restaurant across from the parlor and asked the restaurant owner to call someone from the parlor to get them to come and apologize to him while he waited and drank there. However, the restaurant owner was unable to carry out his demands. Losing patience, Liu walked into the restaurant's kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife and headed toward the parlor.

Upon entering, Liu saw a parlor staff member, Li, squatting at the door. He then held the knife to Li's neck and threatened to kill him. In response, Li used his hands to block the knife and attempted to disarm Liu. The commotion caused chaos in the parlor, and people started fleeing. The struggle between the two spilled outside onto the street.

Li snatched the knife with the help of others and swung it at Liu amid the struggle, causing a laceration and bleeding on Liu's chest. Despite being injured, Liu continued to hurl insults. Eventually, with the intervention of others, the fight was stopped, with nobody calling the police. Li discovered that his neck and fingers had also been injured during the fight.

Three weeks later, in the hope of receiving compensation, Liu reported to the police that he had been hurt and presented a medical report stating that he had sustained minor injuries. After investigation, police officers concluded that Liu was injured during the struggle over the knife and that Li's subsequent defense exceeded the necessary limit, potentially constituting the crime of intentional injury. In August, the case was transferred to the Jianghan district's procuratorate for review and arrest approval.

Prosecutors found from the surveillance video footage from the scene that after taking the knife from the fast-food restaurant, Liu intercepted a passerby riding a scooter near the parlor and waved the knife to drive the rider away. He then used the knife to break the signboard at the entrance of the parlor and randomly selected Li, who was closest to the entrance, as his target. During the struggle over the knife, with the assistance of others, Li managed to snatch the knife and immediately swung his arm, causing Liu's wound.

On Aug 23, prosecutors concluded that Li's actions constituted justifiable defense and thus bore no criminal responsibility, and their explanation was also accepted by the public security organs.

Meanwhile, Liu's actions of wielding a knife, intercepting and threatening others in public places constituted the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. Therefore, the public security organs filed a case to investigate him. Liu was arrested in September, and in January he was sentenced to six months in prison.

The case was mentioned in the Supreme People's Procuratorate's 2023 work report, which was approved by the country's top legislature in March. It stated procuratorates would never compromise on unlawful conduct and pledged to fully implement the system of justifiable defense to protect the legitimate rights of the public.

There was a significant increase in justifiable defense cases last year, with procuratorial organs nationwide deeming 261 people as justifiable defense, representing a 25.5 percent increase compared to 2022.

Luo Qingdong, deputy head of SPP's First Procuratorial Office, said that in recent years, judicial organs have handled a number of justifiable defense cases that have attracted widespread public attention.

China's Criminal Law has a stipulation on justifiable defense, but it has been regarded as a "dormant clause" for some time, due to challenges in interpretation and the influence of misconceptions, such as "whoever is injured or killed is in the right".

Yet, there has been public concern in such cases that has primarily focused on the criteria for determining justifiable defense versus excessive defense.

A poster for the movie Article 20, which focuses on justifiable defense. [Photo provided to CHINA DAILY]

Accurate application urged

In February, the film Article 20, directed by Zhang Yimou, drew its name from Article 20 of the Criminal Law and focuses on the sometimes contentious legal concept of justifiable defense. It attracted widespread discussion and calls for a nuanced interpretation of legal provisions.

A high-profile case in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, back in 2018 caught the attention of judicial authorities regarding such cases. In that case, a traffic dispute led to a knife-wielding motorist confronting another man. The motorist was killed, and police and prosecutors determined that the defender's actions constituted justifiable defense. Since then, prosecutors in several places across the nation have applied the justifiable defense clause.

Luo said that justifiable defense is an important legal standing in China, which encourages citizens to exercise their right to protect themselves. In 1997, when revising the Criminal Law, significant amendments were made to the provisions on legitimate defense, forming Article 20 as it stands today.

The amendments relaxed the conditions for justifiable defense and introduced the concept of unlimited defense rights. These rights allow defense against violent crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping and other acts posing a serious threat to personal safety, even if it results in serious injury or death to the perpetrator, to not be considered excessive defense and therefore not subject to criminal liability.

"However, in judicial practice, there has long been a problem of the overly strict or even inappropriate application of justifiable defense provisions. This is due to various reasons. Some cases are inherently complex, making it difficult to apply the law accurately. Some are influenced by their misconception of judicial personnel," Luo said.

Additionally, factors such as the simplistic handling of cases based on the principle of "whoever is injured or killed is in the right" and "whoever causes trouble is at fault" also objectively affect the application of the law. Furthermore, the lack of judicial interpretations and normative documents on justifiable defense in previous years is also a contributing factor, he said.

The SPP has actively promoted the accurate application of the justifiable defense system through a series of measures in recent years, achieving positive results. The issue of guidelines and the publication of guiding and typical cases have also significantly promoted the lawful application of the system, he said.

In 2018, the SPP released a batch of guiding cases with justifiable defense as the theme, which provided intuitive and specific explanations of the criteria and standards for determining lawful defense, excessive defense and special defense.

In September 2020, the SPP, together with the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security, issued a guideline on the application of justifiable defense, which systematically regulated the accurate application of the law. In 2020, the SPP issued another batch of cases of non-arrest and non-prosecution involving justifiable defense, further clarifying the legal application of the law and unifying judicial standards.

When accurately applying the clause of justifiable defense, prosecutors must first comprehensively collect and fix evidence to ensure that the facts of the case are thoroughly investigated. They also should adhere to objectivity and fairness, exercising the power of examination and prosecution, and strictly employ the conditions for arrest and prosecution, Luo said.

He noted that prosecutors must strengthen supervision during the whole process, and attach importance to justifiable defense or excessive defense arguments put forward by criminal suspects, defendants and their lawyers, ensuring the legitimate rights of the parties involved.

They also must enhance legal interpretation, providing a clear and specific explanation of how the system of justifiable defense should be accurately applied, and promptly respond to social concerns, he said.