China To Reduce Number Of Capital Offences To 55

China executes more convicted criminals every year than any other country. The exact number is a state secret but is estimated to be in the thousands.  Adding up Amnesty International’s figures, this Bystander reckons that China executes more than the rest of the world combined.

One reason is the lengthy list of crimes — 68 of them — that carry the death penalty. That list may now be culled to 55, according to Xinhua.  Some white-collar crimes may come off the list including 13 “economy-related, non-violent offences” such as fraudulent use of financial bills, letters of credit and value added tax invoices. Smuggling gold, silver and other precious metals out of the country would also be exempted. Corruption, considered an economic crime, seems to be one that will still be considered a capital offense. A draft amendment to the country’s criminal code has been submitted for a first reading to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,  so there is a way to go before any change happens.

The number of executions has been falling since 2007 when the Supreme Court restarted reviewing all cases in which a lower court had imposed the death penalty. Xinhua quotes Chen Zexian, a criminal law expert at the China Law Society, as saying that death penalties are mainly imposed for only seven or eight crimes, mostly violent ones such as murder, rape and robbery, so culling the list of capital offences by 13 may not have a significant impact on the numbers, especially as they are all economic crimes.

China Executes Former Securities Trader

While Britain and the U.S. vacillate over punishing bankers for their alleged misdeeds that brought on the global financial crisis, China has a direct deterrent to economic crimes: execution. Yang Yanming, a former trader at  China Galaxy Securities convicted in 2005 on charges of embezzlement and misappropriating 94.5 million yuan ($14 million) over five years, was put do death Dec 8th, according to Xinhua. The 51-year-old Yang had used the money to invest in real estate and futures. The money has apparently not been recovered.

Last year China executed more convicted people than the rest of the world combined, according to Amnesty International, though Iran has a higher per capita capital punishment rate. Amnesty counted 1, 718 publicly announced executions and said it thought the true number to be higher. By world standards, China “acts fast, acts hard” when it comes to executions with death sentences carried out within two years of conviction.