Chinese Official Suggests Reduction in Death Penalty

More people are executed in China per year than in the rest of the world combined. But Chinese state media said on Wednesday that authorities are looking to show more leniency. The New York Times reports that the vice president of the Supreme People’s Court says the death penalty should be reserved only for a small number of serious crimes.

Sarah Cook, an Asia researcher for the U.S. think tank Freedom House, says currently 65 types of crimes can lead to the death penalty in China—including tax evasion and corruption.

Amnesty International reports that an estimated 1,700 people were put to death in China in 2008, a figure lower than previous years. An anti-death penalty group, Hands off Cain, puts the number at 5,000.

But the reality is, no group really knows the exact number of executions—the official figure is labeled a „state secret.“

[Sarah Cook, Asia Researcher, Freedom House]:
“One of the things also to keep in mind in China is the amount of extra-judicial executions that take place, because the death penalty only really talks about the people who are actually sentenced by a court to death. But there are a tremendous amount of reports that come out of China of people that are tortured to death in custody.”

The number of officially reported executions started dropping in 2001 after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics—possibly in an effort by authorities to improve the regime’s image.

[Sarah Cook, Asia Researcher, Freedom House]:
“… Chinese authorities know that they will get international credit… But it’s also something to keep in mind in terms of being very careful to jump to conclusions about this signaling some kind of more systemic change, or improvement, or the Chinese authorities actually taking rule of law more seriously.”

(ohne Unterschrift)