v1.2 · Updated 2026-09-20 · Free China Movement (FCM) · Model Draft Legislation · English
Legal nature and evidentiary boundaries: This document is a model statute, not current law. Any finding concerning specific historical facts, victim numbers, individual or institutional responsibility, or criminal liability must be confirmed item by item under the applicable standards of evidence and statutory procedure; listing a particular historical event as a priority area for investigation, archives, reparations, or commemoration does not amount to a prejudgment of the legal liability of any specific person or institution.
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Article 1 [Legislative purpose] This Act is enacted to establish the facts of major political violence, political persecution, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, extrajudicial killings, grave policy disasters, major wartime abuses against civilians, and other serious rights violations; to identify victims; to preserve evidence; to propose institutional reforms to prevent recurrence; and to safeguard the procedural rights of persons concerned.
Article 2 [Constitutional principles] The interpretation and implementation of this Act shall conform to the principles of a democratic republic, popular sovereignty, fundamental rights protection, due process, judicial independence, proportionality, and individual responsibility. No decision of the Commission may substitute for a court’s criminal trial.
Article 3 [Definitions] For the purposes of this Act, “grave rights violations” include unlawful deprivation of life, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary long-term detention, political persecution, systematic forced labour, and other serious abuses determined in accordance with law; “victims” include direct victims and close relatives or dependent family members determined in accordance with law.
Chapter 2 Establishment and Independence of the Commission
Article 4 [Establishment] A National Truth Commission is established as a temporary statutory body exercising its powers independently in accordance with law.
Article 5 [Composition] The Commission shall be composed of members with professional experience in law, human rights, history, archives, social sciences, forensics, victim affairs, or related fields. The procedures for nomination, qualification review, conflict-of-interest disclosure, and appointment of members shall be public.
Article 6 [Term of office] Members shall serve fixed terms. No member may be removed arbitrarily except for serious misconduct, criminal offences, persistent conflicts of interest, or loss of capacity as provided by law.
Article 7 [Recusal] Where a member, investigator, or expert has a significant personal, family, property, organisational, or other interest in a case, they shall recuse themselves on their own initiative; a party to the case may also apply for recusal.
Chapter 3 Jurisdiction and Priority Areas of Investigation
Article 8 [Temporal and subject-matter scope] The Commission’s investigative scope may cover matters around 1949 directly related to mainland China’s political transformation and to major historical abuses, and shall prioritise: (1) major civilian casualties caused by sieges, blockades, grain requisitioning, bombings, and other military operations during the Chinese Civil War, including the 1948 Siege of Changchun; (2) cases of persecution since 1949 on grounds of thought, conscience, religion, expression, the press, scholarship, association, peaceful political participation, or human-rights activities; (3) the Great Famine of 1958–1961 and related major abuses caused by the “Great Leap Forward” and related state policies, grain requisitioning, and governance failures; (4) major persecutions during the Cultural Revolution; (5) deaths, injuries, detentions, sentences, and other abuses resulting from the crackdown of 3–4 June 1989 and its aftermath; (6) other abuses that evidence shows to be grave, systemic, or representative.
Article 9 [Non-exclusivity] The matters listed in the preceding article constitute a priority scope, not a closed list. The Commission may determine additional subjects of investigation based on gravity, the scale of victimisation, the risk of loss of evidence, and the public interest.
Chapter 4 Investigative Powers and Procedures
Article 10 [Initiation of investigations] The Commission may initiate investigations on its own motion, upon victims’ applications, upon referral by courts, on the basis of archival leads, or upon other reliable information, and shall register the case number, scope, and principal sources of evidence.
Article 11 [Production of materials] The Commission may require, in accordance with law, public agencies, the military, public enterprises, and organisations exercising public functions to provide documents, databases, audio-visual materials, meeting records, personnel rosters, and other materials relevant to its investigations. Compulsory production shall conform to the principles of necessity and proportionality.
Article 12 [Archival cooperation] The preservation, transfer, opening, and restriction of archives shall be handled in accordance with the Archives Openness Act.
Article 13 [Hearings] The Commission may hold public or non-public hearings. Where minors, sexual violence, medical privacy, witness safety, unfinished criminal proceedings, or other significant legitimate interests are involved, protective measures such as closed sessions, anonymisation, delayed disclosure, or other safeguards may be taken.
Article 14 [Witness rights] Witnesses have the right to legal assistance, reasonable preparation time, the privilege against compelled self-incrimination, protection upon application, and correction of the record.
Article 15 [Procedural rights of persons named] Before making a materially adverse factual finding against a specific individual in a public report, the Commission shall inform them of the principal facts, a summary of the evidence, and the possible conclusions, and shall give them a reasonable period to respond in writing or orally.
Article 16 [Standards of evidence] The Commission shall distinguish between fully established facts, facts with strong credible support, reasonable inferences, contested matters, and matters that cannot be confirmed. Administrative findings of fact shall not be presented as criminal convictions.
Chapter 5 Victim Registry and Reports
Article 17 [Victim registry] The Commission shall establish a National Victim Registry, marking each record with its evidence grade, case status, restrictions on disclosure, and correction procedure.
Article 18 [Correction and review] Victims, family members, or persons named may apply to correct manifest errors, and may apply for independent review or judicial remedy in respect of material factual findings.
Article 19 [Interim reports] The Commission may issue interim reports by region, period, institution, or type of abuse, and shall explain evidentiary limitations and matters pending verification.
Article 20 [Final report] The final report shall include findings of fact, institutional causes, victim-statistics methodology, the state of the archives, patterns of responsibility, contested matters, and recommendations for legal and institutional reform.
Chapter 6 Coordination with the Judiciary, Reparations, and Commemoration Systems
Article 21 [Referral of criminal cases] Where specific individuals are found to be suspected of crimes and the evidence meets the statutory referral standard, the Commission shall refer the materials to the competent independent prosecutorial or judicial authority, and shall not itself determine guilt.
Article 22 [Reparations linkage] Facts concerning victims confirmed by the Commission may serve as one form of evidence in applications under the Transitional Justice and Victim Reparation Act, but the reparations authority shall still review independently in accordance with law.
Article 23 [Commemoration linkage] Victims whose status is confirmed and who meet the conditions for disclosure may be entered into the national commemorative registry in accordance with the October 1 Memorial Day Act.
Chapter 7 Oversight, Budget, and Termination
Article 24 [Budget] The Commission’s budget shall be authorised by law and subject to independent audit; no agency under investigation may interfere with its investigations by controlling its budget.
Article 25 [Annual reports] Each year the Commission shall submit to the legislature and the public reports on its work, finances, case progress, use of archives, and protection of rights.
Article 26 [Judicial review] With respect to decisions on compulsory production, confidentiality, disclosure, witness protection, materially adverse findings, and other decisions substantially affecting rights, the persons concerned may seek judicial review in accordance with law.
Article 27 [Sunset] The Commission shall complete its tasks within the statutory time limit. Any extension of the time limit requires public deliberation by the legislature and an explanation of necessity.
Article 28 [Archiving] Upon termination of the Commission, its complete archives shall be transferred to the national archival institution for permanent preservation, and the rules on archival openness and privacy protection shall continue to apply.
Article 29 [Implementation] The specific implementation date of this Act, transitional arrangements, and coordination with current law shall be determined by the legislature established in accordance with law in the future.
Back to: Third Republic Transitional Justice Legal Package
Comparative practice note
ROC (Taiwan) comparison: Transitional Justice, Victim Remedies & Political Archives — comparative implementation evidence. The statistics and case-flow data on that companion page concern ROC (Taiwan), not mainland China; they are used only to test institutional design, sequencing, safeguards and measurable delivery.
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