(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.)
Section 6 Commutation
Article 78 [Conditions and Limitations for Commutation] Where an offender is sentenced to supervised release, custody, fixed-term imprisonment, or life imprisonment, a commutation may be granted if they strictly abide by the supervisory rules, submit to education and corrections, show genuine remorse, or perform meritorious service during the execution period, and shall be granted if they provide any of the following exceptionally meritorious services:
having prevented others from committing a major crime;
having reported a major crime committed in or out of the prison that has been ascertained to be true;
having made an invention, creation, or major technical innovation;
having saved the life of any other in daily life or work at the risk of their own;
having made remarkable performances in responding to natural disasters or eliminating major accidents; or
having made other significant contributions to the State or the society.
The actual term of sentence to be executed after commutation shall not be less than:
half of the original sentence in case of supervised release, custody, or fixed-term imprisonment;
thirteen years in case of life imprisonment;
twenty-five years or twenty years in case of life imprisonment or twenty-five years of imprisonment, respectively, commutated upon the expiration of the term of reprieve, from death penalty with a reprieve with restrictions on commutation granted by the people's court in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 50 of this Law.
