Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China is administered for a wide variety of crimes ranging from tax evasion to aggravated murder and drug trafficking. The People's Republic of China executes the highest number of people annually, though other countries (such as Iran or Singapore) have higher per capita execution rates.[1] Watchdog groups believe that actual execution numbers greatly exceed officially recorded executions; in 2009, the Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 5,000 people were executed in China—more than all other nations combined.[2] The precise number of executions is regarded as a state secret.
Chinese authorities have been pursuing measures to reduce the number of capital offenses and limit the use of the death penalty. In 2011, the National People's Congress Standing Committee adopted an amendment to reduce the number of capital crimes from 68 to 55. Later the same year, the Supreme People's Court ordered lower courts to suspend death sentences for two years and to "ensure that it only applies to a very small minority of criminals committing extremely serious crimes.”[3]
The death penalty is not practiced in Hong Kong or Macau, which are separate jurisdictions under the "one country, two systems" principle.
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After a first trial conducted by an Intermediate people's court concludes with a death sentence, a double appeals process must follow. The first appeal is conducted by a High people's court if the condemned appealed to it, and since 2007, another appeal is conducted automatically (even if the condemned opposed to the first appeal) by the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China in Beijing. The execution is carried out shortly thereafter and is fairly automated. As a result of its reforms, China says, the Supreme People's Court overturned about 15 percent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first half of 2008. In a brief report in May, Xinhua quoted anonymous sources as saying Chinese courts handed down 30 percent fewer death sentences in 2007 compared with 2006.[1]
China has a unique form of sentence: "death sentence with two years' probation" (Chinese: 死缓; pinyin: sǐ huǎn) (discretionary). This sentence is generally reduced to life imprisonment after two years if no new crime is intentionally committed during the probationary period.[4] Article 49 in the Chinese criminal code explicitly forbids the death penalty for offenders who are under the age of 18 at the time of the crime.[4]
Capital punishment in China can be politically or socially influenced. In 2003, a local court sentenced the leader of a triad organization to a death sentence with two years of probation. However, the public opinion was that the sentence was too light. Under public pressure, the supreme court of China took the case and retried the leader, resulting in a death sentence which was carried out immediately.[5]
The Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau have separate judiciaries and local laws and do not have capital punishment. This has created a barrier to the creation of proper extradition laws between the SAR and the mainland. It is quite a concern to many residents of the SARs that in many crimes with concurrent jurisdiction the central authorities have claimed the right to try, and potentially sentence to die, residents of Hong Kong and Macau. Usually, however, if the law is solely broken in SAR and not in Mainland, the PRC has no right to try Hong Kong and Macau residents under "one country, two systems". Hong Kong and Macau residents would then be tried locally in Hong Kong or Macau depending on where the law is broken outside of Mainland.
The execution protocol is defined on the criminal procedure law, under article 212:[6]
In some areas of China, there is no specific execution ground. A scout team chooses a place in advance to serve as the execution ground. In such case, the execution ground normally will have three perimeters: the innermost 50 meters is the responsibility of the execution team; the 200 meter radius from the center is the responsibility of the People's Armed Police; and the 2 km alert line is the responsibility of the local police. The public is generally not allowed to view the execution.
The role of the executioner was fulfilled in the past by the People's Armed Police. In recent times, the legal police force (Chinese: 法警; pinyin: fǎ jǐng) assumed this role.
China commonly employs to two methods of execution. Since 1949, the most common method has been execution by firing squad, which has been largely superseded by lethal injection, using the same three-drug cocktail pioneered by the United States, introduced in 1996. Execution vans are unique to China, however. Lethal injection is more commonly used for "economic crimes", such as corruption, while firing squads are used for more common crimes like murder. In 2010, Chinese authorities moved to have lethal injection become the dominant form of execution; in some provinces and municipalities, it is now ostensibly the only form of capital punishment.[7] The Dui Hua foundation notes that it is impossible to ascertain whether these guidelines are closely followed, as the method of execution is rarely specified in published reports.[2]
Capital punishment is applied flexibly to a wide range of crimes, some of which are punishable by death in no other judicial system in the world. Economic crimes such as tax fraud have routinely appeared among the dockets of those receiving the death sentence, as have drug offenses, corruption, property theft. Capital punishment in China can be imposed on crimes against national symbols and treasures, such as theft of cultural relics and (before 1997) the killing of pandas.[8]
Thirteen crimes were removed from the list of capital offenses in 2011, including smuggling of cultural relics, wildlife products, and precious metals.[9][10][11] This brought the total number of capital offenses down from 68 to 55,[3] though many of the crimes dropped from the list were rarely if ever punished by the death penalty.[11]
Capital punishment is also imposed on inchoate offenses, that is, attempted crimes which are not actually fully carried out, including repeat offenses such as attempted fraud. The recidivistic nature of the offenses, not their seriousness per se, is what is adjudicated to merit the capital sentence.
By the confirmed numbers, the rate of executions in China is higher than the United States and Pakistan, though Iran executes more prisoners per capita. The Dui Hua Foundation declares that the true figures were higher; they estimate that China executed between 5,000 and 6,000 people in 2007, down from 10,000 in 2005.[1]
The exact numbers of people executed in China is classified as a state secret; occasionally death penalty cases are posted publicly by the judiciary, as in certain high-profile cases. One such example was the execution of former State Food and Drug Administration director Zheng Xiaoyu, which was confirmed by both state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.[12] Other media, such as Internet message boards, have become outlets for confirming death penalty cases usually after a sentence has been carried out.
In 2009, Amnesty International estimated 1718 executions took place during 2008 (which equates to 0.0001%, or 1 in 1,000,000 of the Chinese population[13]), based on all information available. Amnesty International claimed that the figure was likely to be much higher.[14]
Pressure placed on local and regional bureaucracies under the auspices of the "strike hard" (严打) campaigns has led to the streamlining of capital cases; cases are investigated, cases and appeals are heard, and sentences carried out at rates much more rapid than in other states.
Executions of foreigners in China are rare. On December 29, 2009, Akmal Shaikh, 53, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, was executed following his conviction in 2007 for the smuggling of 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) of heroin into China. The Chinese criminal code automatically stipulates a mandatory death sentence for smuggling heroin[15] in quantities more than 50 grams. Shaikh was executed after pleas for clemency by the British politicians and diplomats failed. The Chinese ambassador in London stated that the Chinese judiciary was independent of the government, and that the supreme court had made its decision.[16]
Antonio Riva, an Italian citizen was executed in 1951, along with a Japanese citizen, Ruichi Yamaguchi. They were convicted on the accusation of being involved in a plot to assassinate Mao Zedong and other high-ranking Communist officials.[17] On 6 April 2010, China executed Mitsunobu Akano, a Japanese citizen caught illegally carrying more than 1.5 kg of stimulants at Dalian Airport. Three Filipino citizens arrested separately in 2008 for carrying at least 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) of heroin were convicted and sentenced in 2009 and executed in March 2011 via lethal injection. The Government of the Philippines had appealed for clemency on the behalf of the drug mules, but a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said "we grant equal treatment for both domestic and foreign drug traffickers".[18] Another unnamed Filipino citizen was also executed on December 8 the same year on similar charges of carrying heroin in 2008, despite further appeals from the Philippine government.[19][20] On 12 December 2011, Janice Bronwyn Linden 35, a South African citizen was executed for smuggling drugs. She was caught in November 2008 carrying 3kg of crystal methamphetamine at a Chinese airport in November 2008, and had reportedly exhausted all possible appeal processes. [21]
Chinese leaders have historically justified the frequent use of capital punishment through reference to public opinion polls showing widespread support for the practice. Surveys conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1995, for instance, found that 95 percent of the Chinese population supported the death penalty, and these results were mirrored in other studies. Critics have noted, however, that these public opinion polls were of questionable value. Polling conducted in 2007 in Beijing, Hunan and Guangdong showed that only 58 percent favor the use of the death penalty. When questioned further on the use of capital punishment for specific crimes, support fell further. These surveys revealed a general ignorance and ambivalence about the use of the death penalty, and further found that a majority (68 percent) believed that the government should release execution statistics to the public.[2]
Human rights groups and foreign governments have criticized China's use of the death penalty for a variety of reasons, including its application for non-violent offenses, allegations of the use of torture to exact confessions, legal proceedings that do not meet international standards, and the government's not publishing statistics on the death penalty.[22]
The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong has accused Chinese hospitals of using the organs of executed prisoners for commercial transplantation.[23] Under Chinese law, condemned prisoners must give written consent to become organ donors, but because of this and other legal restrictions an international black market in organs and cadavers from China has developed.[24][25] In 2009, Chinese authorities acknowledged that two-thirds of organ transplants in the country could be traced back to executed prisoners and announced a crackdown on the practice.[26]
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