(Selected from the translated work titled The Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, authored by Robert Zhang and Steve Li, criminal defense lawyers registered in Shanghai, China.)
Article 63 [Mitigated Penalty] Where a crime is committed under mitigating circumstances defined in this Law, the offender shall be sentenced to penalties below the statutory range of punishment, or within the next lower range of punishment if there are two or more statutory ranges of punishment.
Notwithstanding the absence of any mitigating circumstances defined in this Law, the offender may be sentenced to penalties below the statutory range of punishment with the approval of the Supreme People's Court in the light of the special circumstances of the case.