Beijing cuts the number of executions, but keeps world record at 4,000 a year
by Wang Zhicheng
Scholars and UN officials discuss ways to reduce capital offences. Supreme Court cuts down on executions, but overall number is still about eight times the rest of the world combined.
Beijing (AsiaNews) – Since 2007, China reduced its executions by half but retains the dubious honour of being the world’s top executioner with 4,000 people put to death each year, eight times the rest of the world combined.
The data, compiled by US-based campaign group Dui Hua, is partly based on a claim by a Chinese legal scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, that executions have been halved.
The information became known at a seminar on the death penalty in China held in Hangzhou in early December and jointly organised by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assisted by the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Participants discussed ways to reduce and eventually eliminate the death penalty, which is currently imposed for dozens of offences.
Since the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) regained the power to conduct final review over death sentences in 2007, the number of executions has dropped by approximately 50 per cent.
On the eve of the seminar, a participant, Prof Liu Renwen, told an audience in Suzhou that in the four years since the SPC recommenced death-penalty review, the number of executions had declined by more than 50 per cent.
According to a 2006 media report, Professor Liu estimated that there were around 8,000 executions a year at that time. However, members of the National People’s Congress had said that about 10,000 people were executed each year.
The death penalty and its use are deemed “state secrets” in China. Until a few years ago, some 70 offences were punished with the death penalty, regardless of the age of the accused.
In February 2011, the National People’s Congress removed 13 offences from the list of death penalty crimes, and imposed a 75-year age limit. Most capital offences involve drug trafficking and corruption.
Dui Hua executive director John Kamm said that the number of executions in China is nearly eight times the 527 Amnesty International says were executed outside China last year.
If officials and the public knew the full extent of the death penalty in China, reduction or abolition would be possible, Kamm said.
The data, compiled by US-based campaign group Dui Hua, is partly based on a claim by a Chinese legal scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, that executions have been halved.
The information became known at a seminar on the death penalty in China held in Hangzhou in early December and jointly organised by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assisted by the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Participants discussed ways to reduce and eventually eliminate the death penalty, which is currently imposed for dozens of offences.
Since the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) regained the power to conduct final review over death sentences in 2007, the number of executions has dropped by approximately 50 per cent.
On the eve of the seminar, a participant, Prof Liu Renwen, told an audience in Suzhou that in the four years since the SPC recommenced death-penalty review, the number of executions had declined by more than 50 per cent.
According to a 2006 media report, Professor Liu estimated that there were around 8,000 executions a year at that time. However, members of the National People’s Congress had said that about 10,000 people were executed each year.
The death penalty and its use are deemed “state secrets” in China. Until a few years ago, some 70 offences were punished with the death penalty, regardless of the age of the accused.
In February 2011, the National People’s Congress removed 13 offences from the list of death penalty crimes, and imposed a 75-year age limit. Most capital offences involve drug trafficking and corruption.
Dui Hua executive director John Kamm said that the number of executions in China is nearly eight times the 527 Amnesty International says were executed outside China last year.
If officials and the public knew the full extent of the death penalty in China, reduction or abolition would be possible, Kamm said.
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