According to Article 20 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China", in order to protect the country, public interests, the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing illegal infringement, stop the illegal infringement behavior , causing damage to the illegal intruder is considered legitimate defense and shall not bear criminal responsibility.
If the legitimate defense clearly exceeds the necessary limit and causes serious damage, the person shall bear criminal responsibility, but the punishment shall be reduced or exempted.
Those who take defensive actions against violent crimes such as assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, etc. that seriously endanger personal safety, resulting in casualties or casualties of unlawful intruders, shall not be regarded as excessive defense and shall not be held criminally responsible.
Extended data:
The reason for legitimate defense must be objectively existing illegal infringement. "Illegal" means that it is not allowed by laws and regulations, provided that the infringement constitutes a crime.
Unlawful infringement must exist in reality. If the defender mistakenly believes that there is unlawful infringement, this constitutes a fictitious defense. Hypothetical defense does not constitute legitimate defense. If it is a subjective negligence, the criminal law stipulates that criminal negligence constitutes a crime, otherwise it is an accident.
Only when illegal infringement is ongoing, it can pose a threat and urgency to legitimate rights and interests, and defensive behavior can be legitimate. Generally speaking, the commencement time of unlawful infringement begins when the unlawful intruder begins to commit the infringement. However, when the actual threat of unlawful infringement is obvious and urgent, and will cause irreparable damage after implementation, the infringement can be considered to have begun.
Reference materials:
Baidu Encyclopedia - Justifiable Defense
Baidu Encyclopedia - Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China