The agency also reviews the legal rulings of the local and special procuratorates, the lower people's courts, and issues judicial interpretations.

Between the 1990s and 2010s, the agency experienced a host of reforms pertaining to its selection of personnel, internal organization and role in the management of corruption.

Beginning in March 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate no longer undertakes the initial investigation of corruption cases by government officials; this task is undertaken by the newly formed National Supervisory Commission.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate is organized into ten specialized prosecutor's offices, which operate under the direction of a Procuratorial Committee.

[1] As described by academics Ginsburgs and Stahnke, the agency's powers encompassed: Alongside these functions, the Procuratorate was able to prosecute anyone deemed suspicious and warranting investigation and could request information from other state organs to assist with the prosecutorial process.

[2] The new Procuratorate was formally enacted in the 1954 State Constitution subsequently adopted by the Congress,[2] retaining its legal supervisory role.

[1] During the Cultural Revolution of 1966 – 1976, the people's procuratorates lost favor as they were perceived as an interference to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.

"[7] In a trial led by the serving Prosecutor-General Huang Huoqing, the defendants were found guilty of plotting a coup to overthrow the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution.

[8] These changes occurred primarily in response to the economic reform of China as a socialist market economy, a development instigated by Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992.

[8] In December 2018, major alterations were made to the internal organization of the Supreme People's Procuratorate through the restructuring of existing departments and the establishment of ten new prosecutor's offices.

[11] Further pressure from student activists and Party members alike in the early 1990s led to the people's procuratorates developing more stringent protocols to manage corruption.

[11][12] In May 2017, the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Anti-Corruption Bureau and Alibaba "to create a clean, credible, rule-of-law market environment.

"[13]: 77  Pursuant to the memorandum, the Bureau provides Alibaba and Ant Group with access to criminal records from bribery cases and Alibaba and Ant Group query those records including during verification of Taobao sellers and in connection with anti-money laundering initiatives and financial risk controls.

[12][14] The Supreme People's Procuratorate role in anti-corruption enforcement was largely rescinded, with all these responsibilities directly transferred to the new National Supervisory Commission.

[15] The agency does not oversee the prosecution of cases from the special administrative regions of Hong Kong or Macau, except those that are investigated by the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR.

[18] The Supreme People's Procuratorate acts as a public prosecutor by handling both the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases in court,[5][19][8] thus functioning as a civil law inquisitorial system.

[14] The Supreme People's Procuratorate also assisted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection with the prosecution of party members relegated to a form of extralegal detention known as Shuanggui.

[30] The current Deputy Prosecutors-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate are Tong Jianming,[9] Sun Qian,[31] Zhang Xueqiao,[32] Chen Guoqing[33] and Yang Chunlei.