The Supreme People's Procuratorate is the highest procuratorial organ in China. It is responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee, and reports its work to them. The Supreme People's Procuratorate independently exercises the highest procuratorial power according to law and is not subject to interference by any administrative organ, social organization or individual.

According to the Constitution and statutes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate exercises the following functions and duties:

-Directing the work of local people's procuratorates and special people's procuratorates at all levels;

-Directly accepting and handling according to law the criminal cases involving corruption, bribery, tort to citizens' democratic rights and misconduct in office, placing them on file for investigation, and deciding whether to initiate prosecution or not;

-Performing legal supervision over the judicial proceeding of courts and the investigation of criminal cases;

-Examining and approving arrests and prosecution of major criminal cases according to law;

-Performing legal supervision over the judicial activities in criminal cases;

-Lodging protests according to law against effective but wrong judgments and rulings made by people's courts at various levels to the Supreme People's Court;

-Exercising legal supervision over activities conducted in prisons and reform-through-labor institutions;

-Providing judicial interpretations of questions concerning applications of specific laws in procuratorial work; and

-Sponsoring negotiations with foreign procuratorial departments and conducting judicial assistance.