“Special Times Call for Special Measures”: China’s Regulation of COVID-19 through Criminal Justice Innovation

This article reveals how COVID-19 has provoked the enactment of recent emergency regulations and the implications for criminal justice policy and practice in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In what the authors describe as a principle that “special times call for special measures”, China’s legal approach to the challenges created by COVID-19 resembles the country’s enduring crime control “strike hard” strategy. Under the banner of “dynamic zero-COVID”, this analysis also demonstrates the practice of cautious law enforcement as seen through the “strike hard” practices. This is encapsulated by the augmentation and specification of “risk-creation” offences as well as the emerging trend that favours charging risk perverse actions as more serious offences when assessing punishment. © China: An International Journal.