Overview
Between Germany and the People's Republic of China there is neither a bilateral extradition treaty, nor is China a party to the European Convention on Extradition. Extradition therefore proceeds on a contract-less basis under Sections 1 ff. IRG.
The practice of granting Chinese requests is extremely restrictive. Systemic concerns regarding the death penalty, detention conditions, the right to a fair trial and political persecution — in particular against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong members and members of the opposition — regularly lead to refusal.
Documented "Operation Fox Hunt"/"Sky Net" campaigns by the Chinese authorities, in which persons living abroad are pressured to return, additionally heighten the vigilance of German courts. Interpol Red Notices from China are increasingly scrutinized critically; the CCF has deleted numerous ones.
Legal basis
In the absence of any binding international agreement, only the provisions of the IRG apply, in particular Sections 1 ff., 8, 73 IRG. Mutual legal assistance proceeds in contract-less relations; the strictest protective provisions apply.
Under Section 3(1) IRG, extradition is admissible only where the offense is punishable under the law of both states by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least one year. Section 8 IRG excludes extradition where the death penalty is threatened and it is not ruled out that it will be imposed or carried out. Section 73 IRG bars extradition where it would conflict with essential principles of the German legal order.
China is not a party to the ECHR. The individual complaint procedure before the UN Human Rights Committee is not available for China, because China has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. The standards of assessment are instead the reports of UN Special Rapporteurs, CAT reports and NGO documentation (Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Chinese Human Rights Defenders).
Country-specific issues in China
Death penalty (Section 8 IRG): China carries out the death penalty on a considerable scale; reliable figures are treated as a state secret. More than 40 criminal offenses carry the death penalty. Assurances by the Chinese General Public Prosecutor's Office that it will not be imposed or carried out are regularly not regarded as reliable in German case law.
Political persecution (Section 6(2) IRG): regularly relevant where there is a connection to Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong members, democracy activists or Hong Kong movements. The systematic, documented persecution of these groups — including internment in re-education camps in Xinjiang — excludes extradition.
Detention conditions (Section 73 IRG, Article 3 ECHR standards): structurally deficient. The UN Committee Against Torture and UN Special Rapporteurs have repeatedly documented torture practices, inadequate medical care, forced labor and solitary confinement. The system of "Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location" (RSDL) is internationally criticized as a form of incommunicado detention.
Fair trial (Article 6 ECHR standards): conviction rates of over 99 %, restricted defense rights, political influence of the Communist Party over the judiciary — the structural deficiencies are comprehensively documented.
Detention conditions and the human-rights review
According to the assessment of the UN Committee Against Torture, the UN Special Rapporteurs and international human-rights organizations, detention conditions in Chinese prisons and in pre-trial detention are structurally deficient. Documented are torture practices, overcrowding, forced labor, denial of medical care and denial of contact with lawyers and family.
The system of so-called "Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location" (RSDL, Article 73 Chinese Code of Criminal Procedure) is of particular significance; it represents a form of secret detention without access to lawyers and relatives and is internationally criticized as a violation of the prohibition of torture.
In German case law these structural deficiencies regularly lead to the refusal of Chinese extradition requests under Section 73 IRG. Assurances are not recognized as reliable.
Lines of defense
The defense in Chinese extradition requests has, as a rule, good prospects of success. Central points of review:
- Section 8 IRG (death penalty): the core point of review. Assurances by the Chinese authorities are regularly not reliable; where the death penalty is threatened, extradition is mandatorily inadmissible.
- Section 73 IRG / Article 3 ECHR standards (detention conditions, torture): submission of current reports from the UN Committee Against Torture, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders. The RSDL system is regularly a ground for refusal.
- Section 6(2) IRG (political persecution): regularly relevant where there is a connection to Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong, the Hong Kong democracy movement or other oppositional activity.
- Article 6 ECHR standards (fair trial): the systemic deficiencies of the Chinese judiciary are documented — a conviction rate of 99 %, a lack of independence, political influence, restricted defense rights.
- Interpol deletion: Red Notices from China are promising targets for a complaint to the CCF. The CCF has reviewed Chinese alerts particularly critically for years and has deleted numerous ones.
- "Fox Hunt"/"Sky Net" connection: where there are indications that the requested person belongs to the target group of these campaigns (wealthy members of the opposition, former party officials), specific submissions on politically motivated persecution.
- Constitutional complaint with an urgent application (Section 32 BVerfGG): the standard remedy where an OLG has wrongly declared the extradition admissible. Prospects of success in Chinese proceedings are regularly high.
Legal representation in Chinese extradition proceedings
An extradition case is a specialized mutual-legal-assistance procedure that goes beyond classic criminal defense. Engaging a defense lawyer specialized in extradition law at an early stage is regularly decisive — not only after the formal extradition arrest warrant has been issued, but already from the moment of an arrest based on an Interpol notice, an SIS alert or a European Arrest Warrant.
As a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law with a focus on extradition law, I advise and represent affected persons nationwide before the competent Higher Regional Courts and in constitutional complaint proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court.