Penalty gradient design under China’s public security administration punishment law: A proportionality-based legal analysis
Keywords:
Public Security Administration Punishment Law, Penalty Gradient Adaptation, Proportionality Principle, Administrative Detention, Empirical Analysis, Comparative LawAbstract
This study compares the relationship between warnings and fines and the amended public security administration punishment law in China from the perspective of the three dimensions of proportionality: suitability, necessity and balancing. It blends normative legal analysis with descriptive analysis of some 10.38 million public administrative penalty decisions issued from 2010 up to the first half of 2025; and a limited comparison between selected foreign legal schemes. The empirical analysis finds a consistent pattern of decisions based on the index of administrative detention, while there is a relatively low number of decisions on warnings. The statutory analysis also shows that there are unclear criteria for moving between sanctions, differences between the clauses linking fines to detention and restrictions on external oversight of the procedures. The findings highlight distributional and structural patterns which are meaningful to give further consideration to the proportionality principle but not indicate that any individual decisions or the penalty system as a whole is legally disproportionate. The study suggests to provide more transparent and clear sanction sequencing, criteria for decisions and review procedures, as well as an empirical evaluation of the 2025 amendments following implementation. This is because it bridges the gap between statutory design and the substantial administrative enforcement patterns and explicitly acknowledges the evidentiary constraints of administrative data publicly available.
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