Anti-corruption continued to be a major focus for Chinese regulators in 2026, with the Supreme People’s Court publishing its first new judicial interpretations of China’s corruption and bribery regulations in a decade. Official statistics provided further evidence of regulators’ continued emphasis on both administrative and criminal anti-corruption enforcement.
New Judicial Interpretation on Corruption and Bribery
On April 10, 2026, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Corruption and Bribery (II) (Interpretation (II), 关于办理贪污贿赂刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释(二)), which will come into effect on May 1, 2026. This is a significant development, with the prior interpretation of the criminal law of bribery released by the SPC and SPP in 2016. It also follows a series of other developments in China’s anti-corruption regulatory framework, including revisions to