（Adopted at the 27th Meeting of the Standing¹ Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on April 28，2002）

颁布日期：20020428 　实施日期：20020428 　颁布单位：全国人大常委会

　　Having discussed the implication “organizations in the nature of criminal syndicate”prescribed in the first paragraph of Article 294 of the Criminal Law， the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress gives the interpretation² as follows：

　　“Organizations in the nature of criminal syndicate”prescribed in the first paragraph of Article 294 of the Criminal Law shall， at the same time， possess the following characteristics：

　　（1）the criminal organization is relatively³ stable， with a relatively large number of members， definite organizers or leaders， and basically fixed⁴ backbone⁵ members；

　　（2）it gains economic interests through organized illegally acts， criminal acts or other means， with a certain amount of economic strength to support its activities；

　　（3）it has committed organized illegal and criminal acts on many occasions through violence， threat or other means， perpetrating outrages⁶， riding roughshod over or cruelly injuring or killing⁷ people；

　　（4）through committing illegal and criminal acts， or taking advantage of protection and connivance⁸ by State functionaries⁹， it plays the bully¹⁰ over an area， exercising illegal control and wielding¹¹ illegal enormous influence over a certain area or trade， thus seriously disrupting the economic order and people's daily activities.

　　This Interpretation is hereby announced.