CHINA, WHICH executes more people each year than the rest of the world put together, is planning changes to its criminal code that would end the use of capital punishment for economic crimes.
The exact number of those executed by firing squad or lethal injection remains a closely guarded state secret, but some human rights groups put the figure at around 6,000 a couple of years ago.
Most executions are carried out for violent crimes such as murder and robbery, but drug trafficking and some corruption cases also are punishable by death. As it stands, China has 68 capital offences on its books, but the new draft amendment would see 13 of these no longer punishable by death. Of the 68 current capital crimes in China, 44 do not involve violence.
A recent case of the death penalty being given for economic crimes was Yang Yanming, convicted of a 100 million yuan (€11.6 million) fraud, who would not say where the money was. He was executed immediately.
China Construction Bank employees Wang Liming, Miao Ping and Wang Xiang were executed for a multimillion yuan cheque fraud scam, while in 2007, Zhang Guangli, the head of a motorway construction company in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, was executed for corruption and embezzling. Now, criminals will serve longer sentences – the draft amendment proposes that the maximum fixed-term sentence be raised from 20 to 25 years.
In an effort to get closer to international norms, China has taken measures in recent years to rein in the use of the bullet or the lethal injection, including requiring the country’s supreme court to review all such sentences before they are carried out. In May, the government introduced new rules saying evidence obtained through torture and threats cannot be used in criminal prosecutions and would be thrown out in death penalty cases that are under appeal.
Some of the crimes that are currently capital offences include smuggling prohibited cultural relics out of the country and smuggling precious metals like gold and silver or rare animals and their products, the Xinhua news agency reported.
“Considering China’s current economic and social development reality, appropriately removing the death penalty from some economy-related non-violent offences will not negatively affect social stability nor public security,” legislator Li Shishi told Xinhua.
Fraud using financial bills and letters of credit, and forging and selling invoices to avoid taxes are also theoretically capital offences.
The proposal would also abolish the death sentence for people 75 years of age and older, although currently very few people in this aged group are executed.
“Although we would welcome any reform that would in reduce executions in China, we are not convinced that these changes will have a significant impact,” said Colm O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland.
“We are still waiting for the Chinese government to release the figures that show this is more than just legal housekeeping, removing crimes which rarely get the death penalty,” said Mr O’Gorman.
It is not known when the draft will become law. The amendment will be examined by a bimonthly session of the country’s National People’s Congress this week.