Compiled from: Jufa
 
Case review
For instructing a public official on how to evade bribery risks, Zhao, a lawyer from Tonghua, Jilin, was charged with the crime of imparting criminal methods and sentenced to one year in prison. Zhao, now 71, previously worked in a district justice bureau in Tonghua, Jilin, and only became a lawyer after retiring from public service. Public information shows that Zhao previously practiced at a law firm in Jilin, focusing on cases involving creditor's rights and debts, damages, corporate matters, and company liquidation.

 

From 2016 to 2018, Zhao, then director and party branch secretary of the Wunvfeng National Forest Park Management Office in Ji'an, signed contracts worth 185,000 yuan and 240,000 yuan for ecological toilets with two eco-tech companies without going through a bidding process. Before signing the contracts, these companies agreed to pay Zhao a kickback of 100,000 yuan in two installments.
 
On November 1, 2018, to evade investigation, Zhao used his own phone and his wife Xu's phone to call Zhao, asking in detail about methods to avoid bribery risks. Following the methods taught by Zhao, Zhao successfully obtained the kickback with the help of his brother-in-law.
 
The prosecution argued that the defendant Zhao imparted criminal methods to Zhao, enabling Zhao to commit bribery, which violated Article 295 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and should be prosecuted for the crime of imparting criminal methods. The defendant Zhao had no objections to the facts and charges alleged by the prosecution and expressed guilt and remorse in court. In April 2021, Zhao was convicted of the crime of imparting criminal methods and sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years.
 
 
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 295 Crime of imparting criminal methods
[1] Whoever imparts criminal methods shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, or public surveillance; if the circumstances are serious, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years; if the circumstances are especially serious, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment.

 

 
[1] The author's perspective
[2] The objective aspect of the crime of imparting criminal methods is manifested in the act of imparting criminal methods, that is, imparting specific experience and skills for committing crimes to others through language, text, actions, or other means. For the perpetrator to constitute this crime, the methods imparted must be criminal methods. Here, criminal methods refer to the experience and skills of committing crimes, including means, steps, anti-investigation methods, etc. If only general illegal methods are imparted, this crime is not constituted.
 
[3] On one hand, any crime of imparting criminal methods spreads criminal methods and techniques, directly undermining public security and order, which is the direct object of this crime. On the other hand, depending on the nature of the criminal methods imparted by the perpetrator, the recipient may commit various crimes, thereby infringing on different social relations. Although the indirect object that this crime may infringe is no longer directly caused by the act, the importer, when imparting a specific criminal method to the recipient, hopes or is indifferent to the recipient mastering and using these methods to infringe on certain social relations. He has intent in subjectively infringing on the social relations determined by the content of the impartation and objectively commits the infringement. Based on this, whether the recipient accepts the impartation or uses the method to commit a crime does not affect the importer's infringement on social relations.