Xinhua News, 2009-06-18
After announcing progress in drafting amendments to China's State Compensation Law in October, 2008, the NPC's Standing Committee is scheduled to deliberate on the new amendments at the end of this month. Sometimes referred to as the “non-compensation law” because of its low compensation levels and narrow scope, the law's new amendments reportedly do not include provisions for award of punitive damages that many legal scholars have been urging. The new amendments are rumored to include clear guidelines for awards of emotional distress, capping them at five times the nations' average annual salary (146,145RMB in 2009). Compensation for wrongly-convicted defendants under the law as it exists now seems to vary widely; one innocent man who spent over ten years in prison received only 300,000RMB in state compensation while another who was in prison for exactly ten years got over 700,000RMB.
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