Law note · China

Criminal Law, Arts. 285-286 (unauthorized computer intrusion and system destruction)

cite Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, Arts. 285, 286 stage IN FORCE kind Computer misuse binds public and private bodies reviewed 2026-08-29

What it asks of an app

  • Do not intrude into a computer system to obtain its data, or exercise illegal control over it, where the conduct is serious (Art. 285).
  • Do not damage or destroy a computer information system's function, data, or programs (Art. 286).

When LexLint raises it

  • crawls_web

What we found

Article 285(1) criminalizes intrusion into state-affairs, defense, or advanced-science computer systems; Art. 285(2), added by the 2009 Amendment VII, reaches intrusion into other systems, or other technical means, to obtain their data or illegally control them, where the circumstances are serious; Art. 286 criminalizes destroying a computer system's function, data, or programs.

These target circumvention and intrusion, not mere collection of what a system already makes public, and no top-level case construing authorization as narrowly as the United States' Van Buren was found for a scraping fact pattern.

This instrument is secondary-sourced only: official primary text was tried at eight URLs across five official domains (npc.gov.cn, flk.npc.gov.cn, spp.gov.cn, court.gov.cn, mps.gov.cn) across two research passes and every attempt returned either a JavaScript shell, a server error, or (at flk.npc.gov.cn) a single-page app whose article text loads by a client-side mechanism outside this session's reach; no CAPTCHA was hit anywhere.

This is a confirmed access-tier gap, not a finding about the law, and it must not be presented as verified against primary text.

Primary source

Lawinfochina/PKULAW English translation (secondary publisher)
official npc.gov.cn, flk.npc.gov.cn, spp.gov.cn, court.gov.cn, and mps.gov.cn text confirmed unreachable this wave

← Back to the example  ·  Lint your app →