Outside pressure unlikely to halt China's rise in executions: experts

Yahoo! News ^ | Nov. 29, 2002

[HighRoadToChina]

Friday November 29, 15:49 PM

Outside pressure unlikely to halt China's rise in executions: experts

China executes more people than the rest of the world combined and, despite growing international criticism, rising crime and a government keen to show its toughness means its execution numbers will continue soar, experts say.

A bullet in the back of the neck is a routine part of China's criminal justice system -- even for certain thefts or pimping -- meaning the country will be a main target of Saturday's inaugural World Day Against the Death Penalty.

But mainland experts say this pressure will do little to reduce the thousands of executions carried out each year across China, given the perception that these help reduce crime.

"No government wants to use the death penalty more than it has to," said Liu Hainian, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Law Institute.

"The government wants to reduce the use of the death penalty ... but it has to fit with China's reality. We cannot cause harm to people's lives and property by reducing the use of the death penalty."

The number of executions in China is kept secret, but even rough tallies taken by Amnesty International from highly selective reporting of cases in Chinese media indicate the figure is vast.

The London-based human rights group recorded 1,939 death sentences and 1,356 confirmed executions in China during 2000.

From 1990 to the end of 2000, Amnesty documented more than 29,500 death sentences in China and 19,500-plus executions, figures believed to be far below the actual numbers.

Although Amnesty has not finished compiling more recent statistics, executions have sharply increased in the past two years, especially with the launch of a tough anti-crime campaign, it said.

"Since the launch of the 'Strike Hard' campaign in April 2001, there's been a dramatic rise in the number of people executed," said Dominique Muller, a Hong Kong-based researcher on the death penalty for Amnesty.

"In the first three months of Strike Hard, more people were executed than the other countries in the world combined in the last three years."

Many of those sentenced to death in China did not have fair trials and may have been subjected to torture to obtain a confession, Amnesty said.

Local governments find themselves under pressure to execute more people due to the Strike Hard campaign, as well as before key political dates, critics add.

Just prior to the opening of the Communist Party's 16th Congress in November, 46 people were reported executed in just three towns, with most shot straight after public sentencing rallies.

Driving the government policy is growing worry about social unrest, including crimes previously unheard of in communist China such as violent bank robberies carried out by heavily armed gangsters, experts maintain.

"For a start, the government wants to be seen to be tough on crime. It also gives a sense of control and stability to people," Muller said.

"This is a way of strengthening Chinese authorities' grip on China."

However, researcher Liu said it had more to do with ordinary people's wishes.

"Go and ask taxi drivers and you'll find most of them disapprove of abolishing the death penalty. We cannot ignore public opinion," Liu said.

There is little doubt that the economic reform of the past 20 years has brought with it accompanying problems such as increased drug trafficking, prostitution and robberies as well as economic crimes such as corruption.

The public is well aware of this: taxi drivers in Beijing and other major cities sit inside steel cages, while many apartment building dwellers install bars on their windows.

"The majority of executions are for violent crimes, but there are also a large number of executions for drug-related crime. There's also been a rise in executions for tax fraud and pimping," Muller said.

But Liu insisted the use of capital punishment will not drop before crime does.

"We have to see if there's a downward trend in crime," he said.

Official government policy remains that abandoning capital punishment is not yet an option.

"If China does not make sure conditions are there, an early abolition of the death penalty may mean turning a blind eye to criminals," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said this week.

[HighRoadToChina]

In Communist China, executions are used an as instrument of political power. These known executions don't count the ones "performed" in Laogai slave camps spread through Communist China and Tibet.