Detained in China: Why the First 37 Days Decide Everything
The legal clock explained, day-by-day actions for families, what a lawyer does inside the window, and the five mistakes that cost families the most.
Read the Guide →The 37-Day Window
How the Chinese detention clock works: day 3, day 7, day 30, day 37, what happens at each deadline, and what a defense lawyer can still do inside the window.
Detained in China: Why the First 37 Days Decide Everything
The legal clock explained, day-by-day actions for families, what a lawyer does inside the window, and the five mistakes that cost families the most.
Read the Guide →
Should You Fly to China? Three Cases Where the Trip Pays Off
Three reasons worth a ticket — and all of them sit at the trial stage. In the first 37 days the trip buys a hotel room.
Watch & Read →
After an Arrest in China: What Police Do With Their Two Months
Five things the police do during those two months, and ten things a lawyer can still do — meeting, bail, written opinion, expert challenges.
Watch & Read →
Day 3, Day 7, Day 30, Day 37 in a China Detention: What Each Means
Four numbers govern a Chinese detention — and the two sevens that families constantly confuse decide how much time is really left.
Watch & Read →From Investigation to Trial: How Long Does a Foreign-Related Case Take?
Investigation, prosecution review and trial — realistic timelines at each stage, and where cases most often resolve early.
Read the Guide →The First Phone Call: What to Do in the First 24 Hours After You Hear the News
Verify, don't panic, don't wire money to strangers — a calm checklist for the worst phone call a family can receive.
Read the Guide →Your Rights in Custody
What a detainee in China can say, refuse and request: interrogation rights, why the written record matters more than the number of sessions, and what consulates can and cannot do.
Who Translates in a Chinese Criminal Case — And Who Pays?
The state pays for the proceeding. You pay for your lawyer's interpreter and your own documents — and one of those two bills is avoidable.
Watch & Read →
Where Are Detainees Held in China? Visits, Letters and Money
The 24-hour transfer rule, why the family cannot visit but the lawyer can within 48 hours, and the three things still open to you.
Watch & Read →
Should You Confess in China? Silence, Timing and the Record
The admission decision, not the words, decides the file. No Miranda, no silence right — but three rights that expire at signature.
Watch & Read →
How Often Can a Lawyer Visit Someone Detained in China?
No limit on visits, no limit on length — and five tests of whether a lawyer's visit was real work or a welfare check.
Watch & Read →
Embassy Notification When Detained in China: Your Article 36 Right
Authorities must tell you about consular notification. If nobody does, that alone is a procedural flaw — and the message takes days to reach family.
Watch & Read →
Police Interrogation in China: How Many Times Will They Question You?
The count does not matter. What matters is what reaches the Chinese-only written record while the detainee is still shaken.
Watch & Read →Can the Consulate Help? What They Can and Cannot Actually Do
Consular visits, lawyer lists, welfare monitoring — and the hard limits of consular protection inside Chinese criminal proceedings.
Read the Guide →Before You Sign: What Not to Say in a Chinese Police Interrogation
Transcripts become evidence. The rights a detainee actually has, and the sentences that damage cases most often.
Read the Guide →Bail & Release
Release on guarantee pending trial (qubao houshen) for foreign nationals: the legal criteria, why flight risk and guarantors decide foreign applications, and how a strong one is built.
Bail for Foreigners in China: Same Law, Different Reality
The legal criteria are identical — but flight risk, guarantors and supervision plans work differently. How a strong application is built.
Read the Guide →
Can a Foreigner Get Bail in China? The Flight-Risk Problem
The same rule, a different answer to one question. Plus the guarantor-or-deposit choice and the window that closes.
Watch & Read →Choosing a Lawyer
Only a licensed Chinese lawyer can defend a criminal case in China. How to verify one, the three screening criteria that matter, and the intermediaries overseas families should avoid.
Family Abroad: What You Can Actually Do From Overseas
The family outside is the only legal channel in. Three routes, ranked — and the notarisation detour that costs the first week.
Watch & Read →
What a Criminal Defense Lawyer Costs in China: How Fees Work
Two billing structures, when a single visit is the right first step, and the three checks before you pay anyone.
Watch & Read →
Arrested in China: Who Do You Call First?
Embassy, lawyer back home, online consulting company — why only a licensed Chinese lawyer can defend the case, and how to verify one.
Watch & Read →
How to Find a Criminal Defense Lawyer in China: Three Screening Criteria
English fluency, response speed inside the 7-day and 30-day clocks, and interrogation coaching within 24 hours.
Watch & Read →Trial, Verdict & Appeal
What happens once charges are filed: the three authorities, the three stages, realistic timelines, and the ten-day appeal window after a first-instance verdict.
Pleading Guilty in China: How Much the Sentence Actually Drops
30%, 20%, under 10% — the discount is banded by stage. Plus the four situations in which signing is the wrong decision.
Watch & Read →
Charged in China: Why Nationality Doesn't Decide the Sentence
Drugs, fraud, illegal business, illegal employment — the same police station, four different universes. The charge decides, not the passport.
Watch & Read →
Drug Charges in China: How Much Becomes a Death Penalty Case
50 g of meth opens the capital band; opium takes 1,000 g. Then the case is fought on net weight, purity, role and entrapment — not on the number.
Watch & Read →
Surrender, Cooperation, Confession: Which Cuts a Sentence Most?
Major meritorious service 20–50%, surrender up to 40%, confession about 20% or less — and none of them apply unless somebody files the argument.
Watch & Read →
Deportation From China After Conviction: The 10-Year Ban
Foreign-related cases carry extra mandatory steps — time, not severity. The one penalty only foreigners face, and when the ten years start.
Watch & Read →
Lost at Trial in China: What an Appeal Can Actually Change
Three outcomes, and only three — plus the one condition under which an appeal cannot make the sentence worse.
Watch & Read →
Can Charges Be Dropped in China? What the Prosecution Review Stage Decides
One month plus fifteen days, three routes to a decision not to prosecute — and the two that never happen on their own.
Watch & Read →
Charged in China: What Happens Next in a Criminal Case
Three authorities, three stages — what each one decides, and where a defense lawyer can still move the case.
Watch & Read →After the Verdict: Appeal Deadlines and Options for Foreign Nationals
Ten days to appeal, what 'appeal without added punishment' means, and how to evaluate whether an appeal is worth it.
Read the Guide →Exit Bans & Visas
Stopped at the border without being charged, an expired visa, and the border between an administrative problem and a criminal one.
Can't Leave China? Exit Bans and How to Lift Them
Three legal bases, three different clocks, two routes out. And the one question to answer before anything else: who put your name at the border.
Watch & Read →
Visa Overstay in China: Fine, Detention or Crime?
No matter how long you overstay, the overstay itself will not jail you. Four other acts will. Plus what the fine actually is.
Watch & Read →What Real Defenses Achieved
Three foreign-related cases, told from the defense side — what was done, and what it produced.