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title_en: "Reply of the Research Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the Solicitation of Opinions Concerning the Application of Law in the Crime of Infringing upon Citizens' Personal Information"
title_zh: "最高人民检察院法律政策研究室关于侵犯公民个人信息罪有关法律适用问题征求意见的复函"
abbreviation: "SPP PI Crime Reply"
hierarchy: "judicial"
issuing_body: "Research Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate"
adopted_date: 2018-01-01
effective_date: 2018-01-01
status: "effective"
related_laws: ["pi-infringement-criminal-interpretation"]
domains: ["personal-information", "enforcement"]
url: https://datacompliancechina.com/laws/spp-pi-crime-reply-letter/
summary: "A short reply letter (Fa Yan [2018] No. 11) addressing whether 'citizens' personal information' under Article 253a of the Criminal Law is confined to the personal information of Chinese nationals. It concludes that the term covers not only the personal information of Chinese citizens but also that of foreign nationals and stateless persons, reasoning from the wording of the statute, legislative intent (equal protection), and judicial practice (excluding foreigners would let offenders escape punishment and be unworkable in mixed-data cases)."
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> **Source: Data Compliance China** — https://datacompliancechina.com/laws/spp-pi-crime-reply-letter/ · English rendering and annotations by DCC; the Chinese original governs. Cite as: Data Compliance China, "Reply of the Research Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the Solicitation of Opinions Concerning the Application of Law in the Crime of Infringing upon Citizens' Personal Information", https://datacompliancechina.com/laws/spp-pi-crime-reply-letter/
**Promulgated by:** Research Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.  
**Document No.:** Fa Yan [2018] No. 11.  
**Issued in 2018. Effective in 2018.**

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To the Research Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate:

Your Office's Letter Soliciting Opinions on Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Crime of Infringing upon Citizens' Personal Information (Gao Jian Yan Han Zi [2018] No. 1) has been received. Upon study, we agree in principle that "citizens' personal information" as prescribed in Article 253a of the Criminal Law includes not only the personal information of Chinese citizens, but also the personal information of foreign citizens and other stateless persons. The principal considerations are as follows:

(1) In terms of the statutory wording, Article 253a of the Criminal Law provides for "citizens' personal information" and does not limit it to "the personal information of citizens of the People's Republic of China"; therefore, "citizens' personal information" here should not be restricted to the personal information of Chinese citizens.

(2) In terms of legislative intent, the information of foreigners and stateless persons should receive equal protection under the Criminal Law in the same manner as the information of Chinese citizens.

(3) In terms of judicial practice, excluding the personal information of foreign nationals and stateless persons from the protection of the Criminal Law would let crimes go unpunished. In particular, where a case of infringing upon citizens' personal information involves both the personal information of Chinese citizens and that of foreign citizens and stateless persons, punishing only the portion involving the personal information of Chinese citizens would be neither reasonable nor workable.