Abstract: The nature of an act determines that of the corresponding crime and the latter determines the direction of its legal interests.The act of money laundering has dual properties since its birth,it not only subordinates to predicate crimes,but has natural and independent financial nature because of its essence of being a kind of money activity.Originally born out of the traditional booty crime,influenced and promoted by the international anti-money-laundering legislation,after three amendments to the Criminal Law,the crime of money laundering in China has gradually shifted from predicate crimes to the ontological crime,and the attitude of criminal legislation towards money-laundering crime has undergone a change from “subordination to the unity of subordination and independency”.Correspondingly,the legal interest of money-laundering crime is composed of two parts:the judicial management order and the financial management order.Moreover,under the background of the current continuous financial changes,the means and modes of money laundering are complex and changeable,the independency of money laundering crime is becoming increasingly prominent,and the purpose of its legal interest protection has gradually been tilted to the financial side.In the future,this change will continue to affect criminal legislation and justice,and delineate a new regulatory boundary for the money-laundering crime in China.

Key words: money laundering crime, predicate crimes, the purpose of legal interest protection, financial legal interest