The Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft Amendment) (Second Draft for Review) (the "Second Draft for Review") has recently been published on the official website of the National People's Congress ("NPC") for public consultation by October 4^th, 2018.

According to the Second Draft for Review, duty lawyers are required to provide "legal assistance" instead of the previous "defense services" and the services of "representation for appeal" and "accusation" are removed. It is also set out in relevant articles the requirements that procuratorates shall seek opinions from duty lawyers in the case examination and prosecution and that the duty lawyer is required to witness a criminal suspect' signing of a statement of confession to plead guilty and accept the punishment. As to proposals made by the procuratorate for sentencing the Second Draft for Comment introduces revisions in two aspects. First, where a criminal suspect pleads guilty and accepts the punishment, the procuratorate shall make a sentencing proposal. Second, where the court consider after trials that the proposed sentencing is obviously improper, or the accused or the defense lawyer raises an objection to the proposed sentencing, the procuratorate may adjust its proposal for sentence. Furthermore, the Second Draft for Review revises the applicable scope of default trials to cover "cases involving crimes of corruption and bribery, and serious cases that involve the crime of jeopardizing the national security or the crime of terrorist activities subject to immediate trial upon approval of the Supreme People's Procuratorate ("SPP")".

 (Source: http://www.npc.gov.cn )