China Marks 40 Years of Juvenile Justice Reform in Shanghai

Shanghai hosted a landmark symposium on June 17, 2026, commemorating 40 years of China’s juvenile prosecution system, with senior Politburo member Chen Wenqing delivering a keynote address that underscored the government’s commitment to strengthening legal protections for minors. The event, officially titled the “Symposium on Preventing and Governing Juvenile Delinquency and the 40th Anniversary of Juvenile Prosecution Work,” was chaired by Supreme People’s Procuratorate Procurator-General Ying Yong and brought together officials, prosecutors, and legal experts to assess progress and chart future directions, as reported by People’s Daily.

A System Born in Shanghai

The symposium was deliberately held in Shanghai, the birthplace of China’s juvenile prosecution system. In June 1986, the Changning District People’s Procuratorate established the nation’s first “Juvenile Prosecution Group” — a pioneering initiative driven by the recognition that juvenile offenders require fundamentally different treatment from adults. Retired senior procurator Ding Yongling, one of the group’s founders, recalled the founding philosophy: “Like a doctor treating a patient, like parents treating their children, like a teacher treating a student.”

From that single office in Changning District, the system expanded rapidly. By the end of 1990, all 20 districts and counties in Shanghai had established juvenile prosecution groups with 55 dedicated prosecutors. The approach soon spread nationwide, with Beijing, Chongqing, Fujian, and other provinces following suit, as documented in a comprehensive retrospective published by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

Key Policy Directions

In his keynote speech, Chen Wenqing — a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission — emphasized the need to thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and the General Secretary’s directives on juvenile delinquency prevention. He called for a multi-pronged approach combining punishment with prevention, tempering justice with mercy, and addressing both symptoms and root causes.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Chen stressed the importance of strengthening specialized education schools and carrying out correctional education, specialized education, and specialized correctional education in accordance with the law. He also called for comprehensive protection of minors’ legal rights and interests, including severe punishment for those who commit crimes against minors and high-quality handling of criminal, civil, administrative, and public interest litigation cases involving minors.

Four Decades of Institutional Evolution

Professor Song Yinghui of Beijing Normal University, director of the Juvenile Prosecution Research Center, has characterized the system’s evolution through three major phases in an expert analysis published by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. The first phase (1986-2012) was marked by local experimentation and the gradual emergence of institutional frameworks. The second phase (2012-2020) saw the systematization of specialized institutions, including the establishment of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s Juvenile Prosecution Office in 2015 and the Ninth Procuratorial Department in 2018 — the first dedicated juvenile prosecution department in central political-legal organs.

The third phase, beginning in 2020, represents a comprehensive transformation. The revision of the Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, which took effect on June 1, 2021, established the “Six Protections” framework encompassing family, school, society, network, government, and judicial protection. The “most favorable to minors” principle was codified into law, and grassroots innovations — including mandatory reporting from Xiaoshan, Hangzhou; employment background checks from Shanghai; and supervisory guardianship orders from Fuzhou — were elevated to national legal frameworks.

Recent Challenges and Progress

The symposium comes at a time of heightened public concern about juvenile crime in China. The 2024 Handan murder case, in which three middle school students under age 14 killed a classmate, sparked national debate and tested the juvenile justice system. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate approved prosecution within one month, and the December 2024 verdict sentenced the principal offender to life imprisonment.

However, 2025 brought encouraging signs. For the first time in five years, both prosecutions for crimes against minors and prosecutions of juvenile offenders saw a “double decline” — down 2.2% and 9.8% respectively year-on-year — suggesting that prevention and governance efforts may be yielding results. In August 2025, the Chongqing Juvenile Prosecution Protection Team was awarded the “Role Model of the Times” title by the Central Propaganda Department, the first prosecutors’ office to receive this honor.

Looking Ahead

The symposium recognized and commended collectives and individuals who made outstanding contributions to juvenile prosecution work over the past four decades. Looking forward, Chen Wenqing called on Party committees and political-legal affairs commissions at all levels to play a leading and coordinating role, urging relevant government departments and mass organizations to form a comprehensive governance synergy.

As China’s juvenile prosecution system enters its fifth decade, it continues to evolve from a grassroots experiment into a comprehensive, nationally integrated institutional framework — one that experts say is increasingly characterized by its unique ability to handle criminal, civil, administrative, and public interest litigation cases in a unified manner, distinguishing China’s approach from juvenile justice systems in many other countries.