Abstract: Modernity is one of the theoretical perspectives to consider a nation’s punishment power.The foundation of nation’s punishment power in contemporary China is based on the theory of the Marxism authors.From this view,power is the real standpoint of a nation’s punishment power.In Foucault’s postmodern perspective,any subject will be the object of power mechanism.However,the theory of criminal punishment based on power is immoral to the criminals.So the standpoint to the theory of criminal punishment must be transferred to criminal’s free will and theories of criminal punishment shall be based on utilitarianism and retributionism.

Key words: criminal punishment, modernity, power, free will