ABSTRACT
After decades of intimacy with harsh justice, China in the post-reform era has seen a gradual shift towards softness in penal politics, which impacts on the utility of some particular sanctions, especially the death penalty. This chapter presents a distinctive reading of the policy of 'Balancing Leniency and Severity' with its relevance to the rule of law with Chinese characteristics and its implications for the contextual development of the state's criminal laws and punishment. A critical account is offered to trace out the changing ideology and practice of penality in the disposition system of minor cases, focusing on specific strategies dealing with low-level crimes within the context of a new criminal justice culture in the post-2001 period. The chapter discusses two particular changes in rhetoric and practice that have taken place in the deposition system of minor cases – namely de-criminalization and de-incarceration – in association with the role and function that community forces represent in China's post-reform penal mechanism.
