What if I catch a stowaway in China?

Whoever, in violation of national (border) administrative laws and regulations, illegally crosses the national (border) territory, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than one year, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also be fined; Whoever steals across the country (border) for the purpose of joining a terrorist organization, receiving terrorist training or carrying out terrorist activities shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than three years and shall also be fined. According to China's laws and regulations on exit and entry management, citizens who violate exit and entry management can be punished as follows:

1. Those who leave or enter the country with forged, altered or other invalid certificates, or use other people's certificates fraudulently, shall be given a warning or detained for up to five days in addition to collecting the certificates. If the case constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.

2. Whoever forges, alters, transfers or buys or sells entry-exit documents, which constitutes a crime, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

3. Whoever fabricates information, provides false certificates or obtains entry and exit certificates by bribery shall be given a warning or detained for less than five days according to the seriousness of the case, and shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law if the case constitutes a crime.

4. If the applicant practices fraud and the circumstances are serious, his application for leaving the country will not be accepted depending on the circumstances, except for handling according to law.

5. If the applicant practices fraud, the public security organ will suspend or cancel his right to apply and notify the higher authorities to deal with it severely.

6. The planners and organizers who apply for exit permits in different places will be dealt with strictly according to law.

The specific treatment is as follows:

1. Citizens involved in smuggling who are currently seized by frontier inspection departments or other public security organs shall be punished according to law.

2. Citizens who are repatriated by foreign countries after taking part in smuggling abroad or who are seized and repatriated by the authorities without legal residence certificates abroad shall be deemed as the continuation of smuggling and punished according to law.

3. Citizens involved in smuggling out of the country need to apply for passports abroad or legal residence certificates in China or entrust relatives and friends in China to handle notarization of innocence.

Legal basis: Article 61 of the Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on Public Security Administration Punishment assists in organizing or transporting others to illegally cross the country (border), and shall be detained for more than 10 days and less than 15 days, and shall be fined more than 1,000 yuan and less than 5,000 yuan.