China Defamation Laws: Civil & Criminal

Defamation in the People's Republic of China is both a civil wrong and a criminal offence. The right to reputation is protected as a personality right under Articles 1024 and 1025 of the Civil Code (effective 1 January 2021), while Article 246 of the Criminal Law makes serious insult and defamation a crime punishable by up to three years.

What counts as defamation in China

Defamation in China is treated as an infringement of the right to reputation, which Article 1024 of the Civil Code defines as the social evaluation of a person's moral character, prestige, talent, and credit. Article 1024 provides that no organization or individual may infringe another's right to reputation by insult, defamation, or similar means. The civil concept therefore reaches both insult (abusive or degrading expression) and defamation (false statements of fact that lower a person's standing). On the criminal side, Article 246 of the Criminal Law targets a person who publicly humiliates another or invents stories to defame them where the circumstances are serious. Both natural persons and, in the civil context, legal persons such as companies can hold a right to reputation, so businesses can pursue defamation that harms their commercial standing.

Civil liability under the Civil Code

Civil defamation in China is governed by the personality-rights book of the Civil Code, in force since 1 January 2021. Article 1024 establishes the right to reputation, and the broader personality-rights provisions allow a victim to seek a court order and compensation. Article 1025 sets a public-interest carve-out: a person who affects another's reputation while reporting news or conducting public-opinion supervision for the public interest is generally not liable, unless they fabricated or distorted facts, failed to reasonably verify seriously inaccurate information supplied by others, or used insulting language. To succeed, courts have generally held that a claimant must show a statement that lowered their social evaluation, that identified them, and that was communicated to others, with fault on the defendant's part. Companies and individuals alike can sue.

Criminal defamation and penalties

Criminal insult and defamation sit in Article 246 of the Criminal Law. Whoever, by violence or other means, publicly humiliates another person or invents stories to defame them, if the circumstances are serious, may be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights. Article 246 also states that the offence is handled only upon complaint, except where serious harm is done to the interests of the State or to social order, which makes most cases a private prosecution brought by the victim.

Watch out: A 2013 judicial interpretation by the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate provides that the same defamatory item reaching 5,000 actual views or being reposted 500 times can satisfy the 'serious circumstances' threshold for criminal liability online.

The defences

The most important shield in civil cases is truth combined with public interest. Because defamation in the civil sense requires a false statement that lowers reputation, a substantially true factual assertion will generally not be actionable as defamation, though it may raise separate privacy questions. Article 1025 of the Civil Code expressly protects news reporting and public-opinion supervision conducted for the public interest, provided the publisher did not fabricate or distort facts, reasonably verified information from others, and avoided insulting language. Fair comment in the sense of honest opinion on matters of public concern is also relevant. In a criminal case under Article 246, the prosecution must show serious circumstances, so isolated or low-reach statements may fall short of the criminal threshold even if they support a civil claim.

Remedies and damages

The civil remedies for infringement of the right to reputation are set out in the general personality-rights and tort provisions of the Civil Code. A court may order the infringer to cease the infringement, remove the harmful effects, restore the victim's reputation, and make an apology, and may award compensation for losses, which can include both economic loss and, in appropriate cases, compensation for emotional or mental distress. There is no fixed statutory cap on civil defamation damages; the court assesses the award based on the seriousness of the conduct, the extent of dissemination, and the harm shown. In a criminal case under Article 246, the outcome is a sentence rather than compensation to the victim, although a victim may pursue a parallel civil claim for the harm.

Limitation period

General civil claims in China, including reputation claims, are subject to the limitation rules of the Civil Code, which set an ordinary limitation period of three years running from the date the right holder knew or should have known of the harm and of the obligor. Because a single article or post can remain accessible online, practical questions arise about when the period begins and whether continued publication restarts it, so victims are generally advised to act promptly. For the criminal route under Article 246, the offence is generally prosecuted only on the victim's complaint, and complaint-based offences carry their own procedural time limits, which is a further reason to act quickly.

Online defamation

Online defamation is squarely covered and, in practice, is a central focus of Chinese enforcement. The 2013 interpretation jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate clarified how Article 246 applies to information networks, setting the well-known thresholds under which the same defamatory item viewed or clicked 5,000 times, or reposted 500 times, can amount to serious circumstances. The interpretation also addressed when online defamation harms social order to the point that public prosecution, rather than private complaint, becomes available. Separately, platform and network-governance rules and later guidance on cyber-violence affect how online reputational attacks are handled and how platforms must respond. A civil claim for online defamation can also seek removal of the content and identification of an anonymous poster through the court.

Watch out: The 5,000-view and 500-repost figures come from the 2013 criminal interpretation and govern when an online statement crosses into 'serious circumstances' for Article 246, not the threshold for an ordinary civil reputation claim, which has no such numerical trigger.

How a claim is brought

A civil reputation claim is filed in the People's Court, where the plaintiff pleads the statement, its identification of them, its publication, and the resulting harm, and seeks an apology, restoration of reputation, and compensation. For the criminal route, Article 246 is generally a self-prosecuted (private prosecution) offence, meaning the victim files the case directly with the court rather than relying on the police and procuratorate, except where the conduct seriously harms state interests or social order, in which case public prosecution can follow. Because gathering evidence of anonymous online posters can be difficult, the 2013 interpretation allows a court, in private-prosecution defamation cases, to request that public-security organs provide assistance in obtaining evidence in defined circumstances.