China’s State Compensation Law provides defined remedies when state organs or their personnel unlawfully exercise official powers and cause qualifying personal or property loss. A police-related incident does not automatically produce compensation: the claimant must identify the particular official act, whether it was administrative or criminal-justice conduct, the legally responsible compensation organ, the required prior procedure and the loss caused.
Secure the decision, summons, detention or release record, seizure inventory, audio and video, medical evidence, witness details, property and income records, complaint history and proof of every service date. Compensation, administrative reconsideration, administrative litigation, procuratorate supervision, discipline complaints and criminal reporting are distinct routes with different functions and deadlines.
Subject to editorial and legal review. This is national procedural orientation, not an assessment that misconduct occurred or that compensation is payable. Obtain immediate advice where liberty is restricted, injuries require independent documentation, recordings may be overwritten, property remains seized or a filing period may be running.
Classify the exercise of public power
Identify the organ, personnel, legal basis, document and practical consequence. Administrative compensation can concern unlawful detention, coercive measures, force, penalties, licence action, seizure, freezing, requisition or other administrative conduct within the statutory scope. Criminal compensation concerns specified wrongful detention, arrest, acquittal or termination outcomes, violence, unlawful weapon use and unlawful criminal seizure or enforcement. Judicial compensation can also arise from unlawful court coercion, preservation or execution. Classification controls the responsible organ and review route.
Identify the compensation obligation organ
The liable organ is determined by the statutory attribution rules, not simply by the officer’s workplace or the claimant’s preferred defendant. Consider which organ exercised the power, whether several organs acted, whether reconsideration aggravated loss, and whether detention, arrest, prosecution, acquittal or retrial changed responsibility. Police stations, detention facilities and internal units may route responsibility to their supervising public-security organ under the applicable rules.
Separate compensation from correction and accountability
A compensation claim seeks statutory redress for qualifying loss. It does not by itself replace an application to revoke or correct an administrative act, challenge continuing enforcement, obtain release, seek return of property, request procuratorate supervision, complain to an inspectorate or discipline body, or report suspected crime. Build a route map showing the objective, recipient, precondition and deadline for each process, and avoid inconsistent factual accounts.
Check the prerequisite procedure and clock
The general State Compensation Law limitation is two years from the official exercise of power, excluding periods of restriction of personal freedom, subject to statutory suspension rules. The procedural sequence differs. Administrative compensation may be requested together with administrative reconsideration or litigation, or first from the compensation obligation organ. Criminal compensation ordinarily starts with that organ, followed where applicable by reconsideration and an application to the competent People’s Court compensation committee. Calculate every period from primary service, knowledge, release and case-disposition evidence.
Prepare a complete application
Identify the claimant and responsible organ; state the concrete compensation requests, facts and reasons; and attach identity, succession or authorization evidence. Include the act and disposition documents, proof of prior procedure, a dated custody or enforcement chronology, evidence of injury and causation, property valuations, income and payment records, and proof of service. If documents are held by the authority, identify them precisely and preserve proof that they were requested.
Build the police-conduct evidence file
Preserve body-camera, station, custody-area, street and private CCTV before routine deletion; call and dispatch logs; entry, search, seizure and inventory records; interview recordings; custody examinations; medical intake and treatment records; photographs; witness accounts; device metadata; and complaint acknowledgments. Record gaps or refusals without altering originals. Medical causation, disability and loss may require properly instructed expert evidence.
Prove the compensable loss
Separate personal freedom, bodily injury, disability, death, property loss and serious mental harm. The State Compensation Law uses statutory calculation methods, including the national average daily wage for loss of liberty and specified compensation for injury, disability or death. Property remedies may include return, restoration or payment according to statutory rules. Annual rates and individual calculations change; verify the rate applicable when the decision is made rather than copying an old figure.
Address mental harm and non-monetary remedies
Where unlawful official conduct infringes personal rights, the law may require elimination of effects, restoration of reputation or an apology within the affected scope. A consolation payment for mental harm requires the statutory seriousness threshold. The SPC’s 2021 interpretation identifies factors for assessing serious consequences and amount; it does not create an automatic percentage or tariff for every incident.
Review, hearing and supervision
Track acceptance, supplementation, investigation, hearing, negotiation or mediation, and the written decision. For court compensation-committee proceedings, identify the competent court and submit the required prior decisions and supporting record. Procuratorates have a statutory supervision role concerning unlawful compensation-committee decisions. A complaint about case handling should preserve, rather than substitute for, the formal review route.
Payment, performance and recourse
After an effective compensation decision, follow the statutory payment application and fiscal process and confirm completion of non-monetary relief. Interest, return of property, restoration and consequential loss require the precise statutory basis. Internal recovery or discipline against responsible personnel is principally a matter for the state organ under applicable rules and is distinct from the claimant’s compensation entitlement.
Working-file checklist
- Exact act, authority, personnel and asserted legal basis.
- Administrative, criminal or judicial-compensation classification.
- Compensation obligation organ and review body.
- Decision, custody, release, seizure and service records.
- Video-preservation requests and original digital evidence.
- Medical, causation, disability, death and income evidence.
- Property inventory, return status and valuation evidence.
- Two-year limitation and procedural-deadline calculation.
- Correction, compensation, supervision and accountability route map.
- Requested monetary and non-monetary remedies.
Official sources
- National People’s Congress: State Compensation Law
- Supreme People’s Court: provisions on administrative compensation cases
- Ministry of Justice: public-security organ state-compensation procedure
- Supreme People’s Court: compensation-committee procedure
- Supreme People’s Court: mental-damage compensation interpretation
Law checked: September 11, 2026. Official Chinese texts and case-specific documents control. Confirm the responsible organ, prerequisite process, limitation period and current compensation rate before acting.
