The "Proposal on Reducing Obstacles to the Application of the Law on Legitimate Defense" put forward by Li Dongsheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress, during the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2024, has aroused widespread concern and deep thought. As an important mechanism in China's criminal law system to protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and safeguard social justice, the effective application of the justifiable defense system plays a key role in deterring criminal acts and protecting citizens' legitimate rights to self-defense. 
Deputy Li Dongsheng has a deep insight into the problems existing in current judicial practice: Although China's revision of the Criminal Law in 1997 and the guiding opinions jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security in 2020 have relatively perfect and standardized the justifiable defense system, in practice, judicial organs are often too conservative and cautious in determining justifiable defense. Due to the pressure of the "injured party", the influence of a third party, and the concern of pursuing responsibility for wrongful convictions, the justifiable defense judgment in some cases failed to fully reflect the spirit of leniency and severity that the law should have, especially the tendency of "consequentialism", that is, excessive attention to the outcome of the death or injury and ignoring the defender's situation and psychological state at that time. Based on the above situation, Deputy Li Dongsheng put forward three constructive suggestions. First of all, a clause has been added at the legislative level to clearly state that the defender should not be held criminally liable in the face of specific circumstances such as panic or anger, even if the defensive act exceeds the limits of common understanding, as long as there is no subjective criminal intent or negligence. The aim is to break down traditional beliefs and strengthen understanding and tolerance for citizens' emergency response. Second, at the level of law enforcement, he advocated further improving the implementation rules of the justifiable defense system, appropriately lowering the threshold for some special circumstances, and expanding the scope of tolerance for reasonable limits of defensive behavior, which will help eliminate the hesitation of front-line law enforcement personnel in handling such cases and ensure the effective exercise of the right of justifiable defense. Finally, at the level of judicial procedures, Li Dongsheng suggested actively promoting judicial openness in justifiable defense cases, comprehensively displaying the trial process and basis, so that the public can more intuitively understand and supervise how the courts apply the principle of justifiable defense. At the same time, it is emphasized that it is necessary to give full play to the role of the judicial responsibility system, urge judges to dare to make fair rulings in accordance with the law, and reduce the impact of improper external interference on judicial fairness. 
If these recommendations are adopted and implemented, they will have far-reaching societal implications:1From the perspective of legislation, refining and clarifying the conditions for the application of legitimate defense will effectively enhance the humanization of China's criminal law, reflect the progress of rule of law civilization, and also provide a more operable legal basis for judicial practice. 2.At the level of law enforcement, lowering the threshold for the application of legitimate defense and relaxing the limits of legal tolerance can encourage citizens to have the courage to protect themselves in the face of illegal infringements, enhance social righteousness, and curb the occurrence of potential criminal acts, so as to maintain social stability and harmony. 3.The improvement of judicial procedures is conducive to enhancing the public's trust in the judgment of justifiable defense cases, enhancing judicial credibility, and promoting the realization of social fairness and justice. Through judicial openness, it can not only achieve a good effect of popularizing the law and education, but also force judicial workers to continuously improve their professional quality and rigorously and fairly try every case of legitimate defense. The "Proposal on Reducing Obstacles to the Application of the Law on Legitimate Defense" put forward by Li Dongsheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress, during the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2024, has aroused widespread concern and deep thought. As an important mechanism in China's criminal law system to protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and safeguard social justice, the effective application of the justifiable defense system plays a key role in deterring criminal acts and protecting citizens' legitimate rights to self-defense. Deputy Li Dongsheng has a deep insight into the problems existing in current judicial practice: Although China's revision of the Criminal Law in 1997 and the guiding opinions jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security in 2020 have relatively perfect and standardized the justifiable defense system, in practice, judicial organs are often too conservative and cautious in determining justifiable defense. Due to the pressure of the "injured party", the influence of a third party, and the concern of pursuing responsibility for wrongful convictions, the justifiable defense judgment in some cases failed to fully reflect the spirit of leniency and severity that the law should have, especially the tendency of "consequentialism", that is, excessive attention to the outcome of the death or injury and ignoring the defender's situation and psychological state at that time. Based on the above situation, Deputy Li Dongsheng put forward three constructive suggestions.
First of all, a clause has been added at the legislative level to clearly state that the defender should not be held criminally liable in the face of specific circumstances such as panic or anger, even if the defensive act exceeds the limits of common understanding, as long as there is no subjective criminal intent or negligence. The aim is to break down traditional beliefs and strengthen understanding and tolerance for citizens' emergency response.
Second, at the level of law enforcement, he advocated further improving the implementation rules of the justifiable defense system, appropriately lowering the threshold for some special circumstances, and expanding the scope of tolerance for reasonable limits of defensive behavior, which will help eliminate the hesitation of front-line law enforcement personnel in handling such cases and ensure the effective exercise of the right of justifiable defense. Finally, at the level of judicial procedures, Li Dongsheng suggested actively promoting judicial openness in justifiable defense cases, comprehensively displaying the trial process and basis, so that the public can more intuitively understand and supervise how the courts apply the principle of justifiable defense. At the same time, it is emphasized that it is necessary to give full play to the role of the judicial responsibility system, urge judges to dare to make fair rulings in accordance with the law, and reduce the impact of improper external interference on judicial fairness. If these recommendations are adopted and implemented, they will have far-reaching societal implications:
1.From the perspective of legislation, refining and clarifying the conditions for the application of legitimate defense will effectively enhance the humanization of China's criminal law, reflect the progress of rule of law civilization, and also provide a more operable legal basis for judicial practice. 2.At the level of law enforcement, lowering the threshold for the application of legitimate defense and relaxing the limits of legal tolerance can encourage citizens to have the courage to protect themselves in the face of illegal infringements, enhance social righteousness, and curb the occurrence of potential criminal acts, so as to maintain social stability and harmony. 3.The improvement of judicial procedures is conducive to enhancing the public's trust in the judgment of justifiable defense cases, enhancing judicial credibility, and promoting the realization of social fairness and justice. Through judicial openness, it can not only achieve a good effect of popularizing the law and education, but also force judicial workers to continuously improve their professional quality and rigorously and fairly try every case of legitimate defense. To sum up, adopting Deputy Li Dongsheng's proposal will not only promote the development of China's legitimate defense system in a more scientific and just direction, but will also create a good atmosphere of respecting and protecting citizens' legitimate defense rights and interests in the whole of society, which is of inestimable significance to the building of a society ruled by law and long-term peace and stability in China. Adopting Deputy Li Dongsheng's proposal will not only promote the development of China's legitimate defense system in a more scientific and just direction, but will also create a good atmosphere for respecting and protecting citizens' legitimate defense rights and interests in the whole society, which is of inestimable significance to the building of a society ruled by law and long-term peace and stability in China.