In late April, a landmark verdict was reached in an unusual court trial in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, where a local court found a minor guilty of intentional murder and rape and sentenced him to life in prison.
At the time of the offense, the defendant was 14 years old. This is the first time that such a severe punishment has been given to a minor in China.
The court ruled that there was sufficient evidence to support the case that, in the summer of 2025, the defendant raped his 15-year-old classmate while walking home from a party. To prevent the crime from being discovered, he strangled her to death.
The judges determined that the crime was particularly heinous and imposed the maximum possible sentence. The defendant is said to have confessed.
However, the victim’s family considers the sentence too lenient and plan to appeal.
The victim’s father demanded an “immediate execution”, telling the local press, “We still hope for the death penalty to be imposed so that the criminal can pay for the life of his victim with his own life.”
Zhou Zhaocheng, a lawyer representing the victim’s family, said the demand for the death penalty “stems from their deep despair over losing their daughter.”
From a legal perspective, any appeal by the victim’s family seeking the death penalty looks set to fail. Under Chinese law, minors can neither be given the death penalty nor a suspended death sentence. But the case has sent shock waves across China and sparked debate over youth, crime and consequences.
Lowering the age of criminal responsibility
Reports on juvenile delinquency in China are rare. According to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency, juvenile offenders are mainly involved in sexual crimes or online fraud.
In 2021, China’s Criminal Code was amended, gradually lowering the age of criminal responsibility in the Asian country. Under the new code, teenagers aged 16 and above can now be held criminally responsible for breaking the law, while teenagers aged 14 to 16 can be charged with various criminal offenses including murder, rape, assault resulting in death, robbery, extortion and drug trafficking.
“This takes into account the current situation in China, where the age of maturity for minors has generally been lowered as living standards and educational levels have risen,” writes Chen Zijun, a law professor at the People’s Public Security University of China. “This allows taking into account regional and individual disparities in the development of minors’ cognitive and self-control abilities.”
A new provision also allows criminal prosecution of children aged 12 to 14, but requires approval from the Attorney General’s office. Only children under the age of 12 are exempt from criminal liability.
By 2024, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Beijing had filed four criminal cases in which four defendants between the ages of 12 and 13 were convicted. The punishment was ten to 15 years in prison. Lawmakers recognize that children’s cognitive abilities today are not the same as they were decades ago, Chen said.
Yunnan’s decision is sending a signal
Theresa Bergmann, Asia specialist at Amnesty International in Germany, said, “However, other Chinese legal scholars criticized this approach at the time as being wrong and argued that even for minors, prison sentences were being prioritized over preventive measures such as ‘education and correction’.”
The age of criminal responsibility for violations of administrative law was also lowered to 14 as a result of changes to the Administrative Penalties Act last year, Bergman said.
However, he said, at least the sentences are likely to be shorter and there is a provision that, for example, so-called administrative detention “shall not be applied” in the case of minors aged 14 to 16.
“We have a number of concerns regarding the Criminal Code. We are particularly critical of its vague definitions, lack of clear legal oversight and the fact that it is practically impossible to obtain legal redress,” the expert said.
With its latest ruling, the court in Yunnan has sent a strong deterrent message, which appears to fulfill the mandate set for it by policymakers.
There are supporters of death penalty in China
The Yunnan case highlights how the death penalty remains deeply ingrained in the Chinese public, where families of murder victims believe they can only find peace of mind once the perpetrator is captured, convicted, and executed.
This idea is usually expressed as yi ming chang yi ming Or one life for another. In other words: anyone who commits murder should be given the death penalty.
“It has historical, cultural and social roots,” Bergman said. “For centuries, traditions have placed great emphasis on retribution and deterrence in cases of violent crime. These ideas continue to shape public opinion today.”
The overall attitude of the Chinese public towards the death penalty is still largely unknown.
State media report on the topic only sporadically, and execution statistics are treated as a state secret.
International human rights organizations have repeatedly called on China to abolish the death penalty, but there are currently no signs of any public debate on the question of whether the state should be allowed to take someone’s life.
“On the one hand, authorities have long portrayed 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 limited space for public debate on alternative models of justice such as ‘restorative justice’ or mechanisms of victim assistance,” Bergman said.
This article was originally written in German.