China's Death Penalty

China is one of the many countries, other than the United States, that practices the death penalty. China’s death penalty differs from ours in many ways though. Lethal injection was brought to their attention, while in some cases, firearms can still be used. China carries out the most executions than any other country in the world. The death penalty could be sentenced to a person for crimes that, in our eyes, are minor; crimes dealing with taxes and bribery. The Chinese death penalty system has zero tolerance and is used in many cases of crime. For example, Xu Shuangfu, gave a confession after he was beaten, shocked, and had gas, along with hot pepper, forced up his nose. Those kinds of actions are inhumane to us in the United States, but are a method for China.

There was a recent amendment passed in China that exempted thirteen crimes which could not result in the death penalty anymore, taking out the minor crimes. When a criminal breaks one of China’s laws, and is sentenced to death, the whole process is very fast. Trials can take less than an hour and after convicted, they are executed shortly after. The Chinese people barley has a right to an attorney, and no leeway is given to them whatsoever. As for the United States, when a person is sentenced to the death penalty, many steps have to be taken, which is a lengthy process and could take up to many years. The People’s Republic of China has not reduced their crime list for the death penalty since 1979, so this is huge for the Chinese people. This amendment will save many lives for crimes that are minor, but there are still consequences for these actions, such as imprisonment.

The thirteen exempt crimes are economic-related but are considered to be non-violent offences: including smuggling cultural relics, gold, silver, and other precious metals and rare animals and their products out of the country; carrying out fraudulent activities with financial bills; carrying out fraudulent activities with letters of credit; the false issuance of exclusive value-added tax invoices to defraud export tax refunds or to offset taxes; the forging or selling of forged exclusive value-added tax invoices; the teaching of crime-committing methods; and robbing ancient cultural ruins. In addition to these crimes, a person who is older than 75 years of age cannot be executed, along with people who are under 18 and women who are pregnant. Even though China is putting more leeway into the death penalty, imprisonment is becoming stronger.


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Xinhua, Initials. (2011, February 25). China exempts 13 crimes from death penalty. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-02/25/content_12081299.htm