BEIJING - The Supreme People's Procuratorate said that the rate of arrest and prosecution of minors in China had fallen in 2017.

In the first 11 months, prosecutors exempted 13,100 criminal suspects below the age of 18 from arrest, or 33.4 percent of all minor suspects, up 1.8 percentage points compared with the same period in 2016, the SPP said in a statement.

Meanwhile, 8,800 minors, or 18.4 percent of the total, were exempted from prosecution from January to November in 2017, an increase of 3.4 percentage points year on year.

Prosecutors nationwide have been required to show leniency to juveniles convicted of minor offences in an effort to "educate and save" them, said Zheng Xinjian, head of the minor case division of the SPP.

China has taken steps to protect the rights of adolescent suspects. The Changning District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai set up the country's first special prosecution group for minors in 1986.