China: Life imprisonment for boy murderer

An unusual trial with a precedent: in late April, a local court in the southwestern province of Yunnan found a minor guilty of murder and rape.

Sentence – life imprisonment.

The accused was 14 years old at the time of the crime. Such a harsh sentence against a minor has never been known before.

The court found that in the summer of 2025, the perpetrator first raped his then 15-year-old school friend on the way home from a party, and then, in order to cover up the crime, strangled her. The judges assessed that there was a particular gravity of the crime and imposed the harshest possible sentence. The defendant, it is alleged, confessed to the crime.

"Such harsh sentences are the exception rather than the rule," says Georg Gesk, a professor of Chinese law at the University of Osnabrück in Germany.

According to data from China's state news agency Xinhua, juvenile offenders are most often involved in sexual offenses or online fraud. The Supreme People's Procuratorate in Beijing said that in 2024, four cases were brought against defendants aged between 12 and 13, with sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years in prison.

"From a legal-sociological perspective, it can be observed that there are young people who believe that nothing serious can happen to them. There are also films and manga comics that glorify youth violence and which have a great influence throughout East Asia, mainly on young audiences," adds Gesk.

Criminal liability lowered to 12 years

Criminal liability in China has been gradually lowered with amendments to the Criminal Code in 2021. Young people aged 16 and above are considered fully criminally responsible. Teenagers aged 14 to 16 can be charged with eight serious crimes, such as murder, rape, grievous bodily harm resulting in death, robbery or drug trafficking.

The novelty is that it is possible to prosecute children aged 12 to 13, but with the approval of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. Children under the age of 12 are not subject to criminal liability.

"This reflects the current situation in which the maturation of minors in China, along with the rise in living standards and education, generally develops earlier," writes Chen Zhijun, a law professor at the China University of Public Security.

"Unevennesses between regions and between individuals in the development of perception and control abilities in minors can thus be taken into account." The cognitive abilities of children today are no longer the same as they were a few decades ago, according to legislators.

"However, some Chinese legal experts criticized it at the time as wrong to prioritize prison sentences for juveniles over preventive approaches such as 'education and correction,'" says Teresa Bergman, Asia expert at Amnesty International in Germany, "and because it contradicts general legal trends in China, including the abolition of some administrative detention systems."

Although the age limit for administrative offenses was lowered to 14 years by amendments to the law last year, as Bergman states, there is a possibility of mitigating the sentences, as well as a provision that administrative detention for minors aged 14 to 16 "is not carried out".

"Our concerns regarding the criminal code are numerous. We are particularly critical of the vague definitions, the lack of clear legal oversight and the fact that in practice it is almost impossible to seek legal redress," says the Amnesty International expert.

Political verdict with signals

The Yunnan court sent a signal with this verdict and thus fulfilled the task that politics had set for it. The victim's family, however, believes that the sentence is too lenient and has announced an appeal. Although they have waived compensation, they are still demanding the death penalty.

"We hope that the perpetrator will pay with his life for the life of our daughter," the victim's father told local media, demanding "immediate execution."

The family's lawyer, Zhou Zhaocheng, justifies this request: "Behind the renunciation of any material compensation and the insistence on a harsher sentence lies the ultimate despair over the loss of their daughter," the lawyer said.

"Since the verdict does not exclude the possibility of parole for good behavior, the life sentence does not necessarily have to be carried out to the end," says German professor Gesk.

"The verdict, despite its objectively severe sentence, represents a balancing act between four poles: the social need for revenge (demands for retribution by the victims), the state's interest in general prevention, the immaturity of the perpetrator, and the legally open possibility of resocialization."

However, under Chinese criminal law, the death penalty, or a suspended death sentence, cannot be imposed on a minor. In practice, a suspended death sentence is never carried out. The victim's family's appeal is therefore legally hopeless.

The death penalty still has supporters in China

However, this request shows that the death penalty remains deeply rooted in the Chinese public consciousness. Families of murder victims believe that only when the perpetrator is arrested, convicted and executed can they find inner peace.

There is a well-known saying among the people – "life for life", a version of the biblical "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth". In other words: whoever kills must be punished by death.

"It has historical, cultural and social roots," says expert Bergman. "Over the centuries, tradition has placed great importance on retribution and deterrence in violent crimes. Such perceptions continue to shape public opinion today."

How the Chinese public as a whole views the death penalty today remains largely unknown. The subject is considered taboo, and data on executions is a state secret. State media only occasionally reports on executions.

However, support for the death penalty appears to have further strengthened. "On the one hand, the authorities have long presented the use of the death penalty as a deterrent that contributes to 'social stability' and the fight against crime. On the other hand, due to restrictions on civil society and independent media, there is very limited space for public debate about alternative models of justice," says Bergman.

International human rights organizations are calling on China to abolish the death penalty. However, there is currently no indication of a public debate on whether the state has the right to take a life ex officio.