You may stop an ongoing unlawful attack, but stop when the attack ends

A private lawyer may cost several thousand RMB; legal aid may be available. The procedural cost can be substantial even if your action is ultimately lawful: an intentional-injury investigation and days or weeks of detention may occur before the facts are resolved. Staying composed through that process is difficult.

Criminal Law Article 20 protects acts stopping an ongoing unlawful infringement of national or public interests, or someone’s personal, property, or other rights. Necessary injury to the attacker in lawful defense does not create criminal liability. Defense that manifestly exceeds necessary limits and causes major harm creates liability, but punishment must be reduced or waived. For ongoing assault of the legally specified violent kind, murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, or other violent crimes seriously threatening personal safety, defensive action causing the attacker’s injury or death is not excessive defense under the special provision. The joint guidance requires both excessive force and major harm for excessive defense; major harm means serious injury or death, not the technical category of minor injury or less. An attack ends only when the attacker has genuinely lost the capacity to continue or genuinely abandoned it. Defense must target the attacker. Using a method sufficient to cause serious injury or death against an obviously trivial infringement is not recognized as defense. Official cases illustrate the procedural burden. In Guiding Case 47, the Yu Haiming incident on 27 August 2018 was initially opened as intentional injury; Kunshan police recognized self-defense and closed it on 1 September. In Guiding Case 45, a student attacked by nine people used a knife and seriously injured three. Police opened an intentional-injury case and detained him; prosecutors recognized self-defense and refused arrest approval, after which he was released. Police normally request arrest approval within three days of criminal detention, extendable by one to four days in special circumstances or to 30 days for major suspects involving itinerant, repeated, or group offending. Prosecutors then have seven days to decide.

The practical first choice remains disengaging and reporting. Mutual fighting and pursuit after the danger has ended are not defense. Avoid physical confrontation where you can safely get away. Afterward, report and stay available at the scene; preserve surveillance footage and witnesses promptly; and obtain a lawyer before formal questioning. The guidance calls for police to obtain recordings and interview witnesses promptly. If the case is withdrawn, not prosecuted, or ends in acquittal, compensation may be available for qualifying detention; see state compensation. Defense of another person is also legally recognized, but entering a fight among strangers creates additional risks; see witnessing a group fight. This entry’s principal beneficiaries are you and your family.

National People’s Congress (1997). Criminal Law, Article 20. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/201802/t20180206_364975.shtml; Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and Ministry of Public Security (2020). Self-defense guidance, document 2020 No. 31, paragraphs 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, and 19. https://www.court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/251611.html; Supreme People’s Procuratorate (2018). Twelfth group of guiding cases, Cases 45 and 47. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/jczdal/201812/t20181219_402920.shtml; Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (2018). Criminal Procedure Law, Article 91, reposted by Ningxia’s procuratorate. https://www.nx.jcy.gov.cn/zwsy/qwfb/202011/t20201119_608817.html.