When did China adopt its first criminal law and criminal procedure codes?

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Chinese law Statue of Qin Shihuangdi near his tomb, Xi'an, China.

China adopted its first codes of criminal law and criminal procedure in 1979.1

These codes were enacted by the National People’s Congress following the end of the Cultural Revolution, as part of a broader initiative led by Deng Xiaoping to establish formal legality and rebuild the country's legal system. While work on these fundamental codes had begun in the 1950s, their completion and adoption were central to the ambitious legal development program initiated in the late 1970s to provide a stable framework for China's economic and social modernization.21