China's procuratorates optimize sentencing suggestions for guilty pleas

BEIJING -- The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has issued a guideline on providing sentencing suggestions to courts on cases where the suspects or defendants have pled guilty and accepted punishments.

It stipulates that corresponding evidence for each penalty measurement should be provided. It also clarifies sentencing suggestion procedures, and the mechanism of adjusting the sentencing suggestion if the courts have a different opinion.

China launched the guilty-plea system in 2018, which enables suspects or defendants to plead guilty and accept punishment in return for a more efficient litigation process or lesser penalty.

The system has significantly improved the quality and efficiency of handling cases, said the SPP.

In the first eleven months of 2021, Chinese procuratorial organs offered sentencing suggestions for 90.87 percent of cases, 54.97 percentage points higher than in the same period of 2019. The courts adopted 96.85 percent of these suggestions.