Political Repression in The People's Republic of China - Executions (Death Penalty/Capital Punishment)

Executions (Death Penalty/Capital Punishment)

Main article: Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China See also: Death penalty

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According to Amnesty International throughout the 1990s more people were executed or sentenced to death in China than in the rest of the world put together.

The death penalty in Mainland China is officially administered upon offenders of serious and violent crimes, such as aggravated murder, but China retains in law a number of nonviolent death penalty offences such as drug trafficking. The People's Republic of China administers more official Death penalties, though other countries (such as Iran or Singapore) have higher official execution rates. Reliable NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Right in China have informed the public that the total execution numbers, with unofficial death penalties included, greatly exceed officially recorded executions; in 2009, the Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 5,000 people were executed in China – far more than all other nations combined. The precise number of executions is regarded as a state secret.

PRC authorities have recently been pursuing measures to reduce the official number of crimes punishable by death and limit how much they officially utillise the death penalty. In 2011, the National People's Congress Standing Committee adopted an amendment to reduce the number of death penalty eligible 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.”

The death penalty is one of the classical Five Punishments of The Chinese Dynasties. In Chinese philosophy, the death penalty was supported by the Legalists but its application was tempered by the Confucianists, who preferred rehabilitation over punishment, let alone capital punishment. In Communist philosophy, Vladimir Lenin advocated for the retention of the death penalty, whilst Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels claimed that the practice was "feudal" and a symbol of "capitalist oppression". Chairman Mao of the Communist Party of China and his government somewhat glorified, to an extent, the death penalty's place in the legal system, albeit whilst advocating that it be used for a limited number of counterrevolutionaries. The market reformer Deng Xiaoping after him stressed that the practice must not be abolished, and advocated its wider use against recidivists and corrupt officials. Leaders of The PRC's minor, non-communist parties have also advocated for greater use of the death penalty. Both Deng and Mao viewed the death penalty as having tremendous popular support, and portrayed the practice as a means "to assuage the people's anger".

The death penalty has widespread support in China, especially for violent crimes, and no group in government or civil society vocally advocates for its abolition. 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. Polling conducted in 2007 in Beijing, Hunan and Guangdong found a more moderate 58 percent in favor of the death penalty, and further found that a majority (63.8 percent) believed that the government should release execution statistics to the public.

A total of 68 crimes are punishable by death, including non-violent, white-collar crimes such as embezzlement and tax fraud. Execution methods include lethal injections and shooting. The People's Armed Police carries out the executions, usually at 10 am.

Death sentences in post-Maoist mainland China can be politically or socially influenced. In 2003, a local court sentenced the leader of a triad society 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 Communist China took the case and retried the leader, resulting in a death sentence which was carried out immediately.