New Regulations by the Ministry of Public Security to Rectify the Chaos of "Deep Sea Fishing"

In recent years, the opposition to "deep-sea fishing" and "profit-driven law enforcement" has been growing increasingly louder. This phenomenon has multiple causes, including the pressure on finances in some regions that leads case workers to "find rice to put in the pot," seeking cases that can create economic benefits. Another important reason is that our country's criminal jurisdiction regulations are too broad, with jurisdictional provisions that allow for regulation as long as it is "related," providing a legal basis for "deep-sea fishing."

Since the second half of 2024, the judicial system has implemented several measures to curb distant water fishing, such as the "Prosecutorial Protection of Enterprises" special action carried out by procuratorates in various regions and the special supervision of unlawful extraterritorial law enforcement and profit-driven law enforcement deployed by national procuratorial organs. However, the most powerful measure is the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Public Security in March 2025, which will curb distant water fishing from the source, effectively preventing some local public security organs from abusing jurisdiction in pursuit of economic benefits through profit-driven law enforcement.

Provisions on Jurisdiction in New Regulations

The new regulations clarify that the jurisdiction of inter-provincial criminal cases is primarily based on the location of the main crime, with the location of the enterprise as a supplementary principle. This is different from the current jurisdictional regulations for criminal cases. Under the current regulations, criminal cases are under the jurisdiction of the public security organs at the crime location and the residence of the suspect, and the definitions of crime location and residence are relatively broad.

For cybercrime, the current regulations allow multiple local public security authorities to have jurisdiction, including the location of the network server, the location of the service provider, and the location of the compromised system and its administrator, etc. The regulations in 2018 further allowed the public security authority that first discovers or accepts an economic crime case to have jurisdiction.

These broad jurisdictional provisions may lead to multiple issues:

1. Law enforcement agencies in different regions may "compete" for jurisdiction over economically beneficial cases.
2. Defense lawyers find it difficult to defend cases of obvious "profit-driven law enforcement" from a jurisdictional perspective.
3. When the target of the case shifts to pursuing economic benefits, it may affect the fair handling of the case.
4. The off-site case handling units may lack the expertise and technical means to deal with new or complex cases (such as those involving blockchain and web3 criminal cases).

The implementation of the new regulations will effectively address these issues and ensure that cases are handled by the most suitable authorities.

Companies' Responses to "Deep-sea Fishing"

1. Raise an objection to the jurisdiction of the public security organ and have the right to appeal.
2. Dial "12389" to report complaints.
3. Log in to the 12309 China Procuratorial Network to file complaints. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has set up a "Special Supervision Zone for Cross-Regional Law Enforcement and Profit-Oriented Law Enforcement Related to Enterprises" on this website, where businesses can reflect on various types of demands.

Conclusion

Since the new regulations were issued in March 2025, local public security systems have been intensively organizing studies and implementations. Many public security agencies are also conducting special actions for investigations based on these new regulations. It is hoped that the new regulations can truly be implemented, allowing victims of "high seas fishing" to regain a new life, and enabling every ordinary person to feel the progress of the rule of law, with individual rights increasingly well protected.