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Chinese try mobile death vans
The Age - Australia ^ | March 13 2003 | Hamish McDonald

Posted on 03/13/2003 2:14:57 PM PST by vannrox

Chinese try mobile death vans
By Hamish McDonald
Beijing
March 13 2003

China is equipping its courts with mobile execution vans as it shifts away from the communist system's traditional bullet in the head, towards a more "civilised" use of lethal injection.

Intermediate Courts of the southern province of Yunnan were issued with 18 new execution vans on February 28 and a court official said some have already been used.

"We cannot tell you how many executions so far, otherwise you could work out from the daily rate how many we carry out," the official said.

Chinese authorities keep execution numbers a secret, but Western human rights monitors believe it is about 15,000 a year, more than the rest of the world's judicial executions combined.

The death penalty can apply for serious crimes against the person, armed robbery, drug trafficking, major cases of corruption and political violence.

Many public executions have been held in football stadiums so traditional execution methods are no secret. The condemned criminal is taken by open truck to the execution ground and made to kneel with hands cuffed and head bowed, before being shot in the head. Families who want to reclaim the body are charged for the bullet.

China's legal system allows only one appeal and lawyers say that less than 20 per cent of defendants have professional legal representation. When appeals against the death penalty are rejected, the sentence is carried out immediately, sometimes within hours.

In Yunnan, as well as in the cities of Harbin and Shanghai, death on the road has replaced death row. The execution vans are converted 24-seater buses. The windowless execution chamber at the back contains a metal bed on which the prisoner is strapped down. A police officer presses a button and an automatic syringe plunges a lethal drug into the prisoner's vein. The execution can be watched on a video monitor next to the driver's seat and be recorded if required. Court officials say the lethal drug was devised by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to meet two criteria: that it causes no sharp pain or emotional upset for the prisoner and that it works within 30 to 60 seconds.

Although the vans cost about 500,000 yuan ($A100,000) each, officials say the method is cheaper and requires less manpower than traditional executions, because land for traditional execution grounds is not cheap. But the main impetus was a law passed in 1995, making lethal injection an alternative to the bullet.

Yunnan officials say most prisoners and their families prefer the injection.

"When they know they can't be pardoned, they accept this method calmly, and have less fear," one official told the Chinese Life Weekly.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/12/1047431092598.html


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: china; death; modern; police; state; technique; van; weapon
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To: weikel
The point is they are imprisoning, torturing and executing people for their religious beliefs. They also force their people to have abortions if they have more than one child.

I'm sure there is much more human rights violations they have committed and continue to do so.

I'm aware that Clinton is the one that gave them the technology but presidents of both parties have given them MFN status.

We sure are good to our enemies.

21 posted on 03/13/2003 3:07:49 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: Cap'n Crunch
Clinton gave nuke tech not only to China but he also gave North Korea everything but the finished bomb. A lot of people on the right are under the false impression that China gave North Korea their nuclear capability it was Clinton.

Thats what he should have been impeached for his treasonous giving of a nuclear reactor and weapons grade material to North Korea. Not for a lie in a question that shouldn't have been asked in a lawsuit that shouldn't have been allowed.

22 posted on 03/13/2003 3:18:16 PM PST by weikel ( Ad space here rates are reasonable)
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To: vannrox
Note to the Chinese gov't:
Contact Berlin, they're the expects in this area.
23 posted on 03/13/2003 3:19:22 PM PST by greasepaint
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To: weikel
Im not interested in America fighting for the interest of the Vatican abroad.

In response to:

I know that Catholics in that country are being imprisoned, tortured and executed.

brilliant

24 posted on 03/13/2003 3:20:42 PM PST by briant
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To: weikel
The way I understood it was this. Clinton gave the Chinese the guidance systems. Clinton gave North Korea technology to build nuclear power plants and the North Koreans used that technolgy to make nuclear weapons and the Chinese gave the North Koreans the guidance system technology.

Least that's how I heard it. I didn't research it myself.

25 posted on 03/13/2003 3:23:20 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: Cap'n Crunch
I think you're wasting your time. So people don't care. They want "free markets" even if it means slave-labor. (As long as they are not the slaves).
26 posted on 03/13/2003 3:24:40 PM PST by briant
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To: vannrox
Court officials say the lethal drug was devised by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to meet two criteria: that it causes no sharp pain or emotional upset for the prisoner and that it works within 30 to 60 seconds.

Poor Hamish has forgotten how to use the subjunctive.
27 posted on 03/13/2003 3:30:08 PM PST by aruanan
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To: Cap'n Crunch
Clinton gave North Korea technology to build nuclear power plants and the North Koreans used that technolgy to make nuclear weapons and the Chinese gave the North Koreans the guidance system technology.

We really don't know whether NK has guidance systems. If they do they probably bought them from the Europeans... the French will sell anything to anyone.

28 posted on 03/13/2003 3:31:15 PM PST by weikel ( Ad space here rates are reasonable)
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To: briant
Is it just me or do you think we are soon to be slaves also? I mean, 50% of Americans think MFN status is great, half of them vote democrat and we all know the democrats will soon have us all enslaved.

I like reading books by Hilaire Belloc. He says were nothing but 'wage slaves' already.

29 posted on 03/13/2003 3:35:08 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: vannrox
Chinese try mobile death vans

No suprise that the ChiComms are siding with Germany in the UN (as the Nazis used mobile
vans for executing folks for awhile).
30 posted on 03/13/2003 3:38:47 PM PST by VOA
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To: weikel
It just floors me that countries will sell technology that may someday be used against them. It also floors me that a traitor like Bill Clinton got a free pass on giving this technology to the Chinese. Not only got a free pass but could likely get elected president again.

Unbelievable.

31 posted on 03/13/2003 3:39:43 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: briant
I don't understand how we are going to bring down Chinese communism like we did Russia when we give them MFN status. When I used to go to the store I don't recall seeing many items that said "Made in Russia" however just about everything now says "Made in China."

Let's give them money, give them technology and then hope they don't destroy us.

I wrote a letter to the Commandant of the Marine Corps when I saw that he was going over to China to assist them with their amphibious landing technology during the Clinton administration. I couldn't believe it.

I got a response: "The Commandant thanks you for your comments."

32 posted on 03/13/2003 3:43:22 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: Cap'n Crunch
Clinton's a commie( well Hilary anyway but she called the shots) its no surprise he gave the only remaining hardcore Stalinist( and total whackjob) Kim a nuclear capability.
33 posted on 03/13/2003 3:43:38 PM PST by weikel ( Ad space here rates are reasonable)
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To: weikel
I agree. The sad part is he could possibly get elected again. Or worse, Hitlery could get elected. I don't think it's that far-fetched.

Then everyone who voted democrat would say, as they take our freedoms, "but hey, the economy is good."

34 posted on 03/13/2003 3:48:53 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: Cap'n Crunch
I don't understand how this MFN business is in our interest either. I don't know how we can compete with third wworld slaves and why we should help them build weapons.

Some say "they" (corporate elites)want to destroy the working and middle class no matter the cost (cheap labor). It depends on how paranoid I am on a given day whether I believe this.

35 posted on 03/13/2003 4:15:30 PM PST by briant
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To: briant
LOL, there is alot to be paranoid about.
36 posted on 03/13/2003 4:19:56 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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To: vannrox
Many public executions have been held in football stadiums so traditional execution methods are no secret. The condemned criminal is taken by open truck to the execution ground and made to kneel with hands cuffed and head bowed, before being shot in the head. Families who want to reclaim the body are charged for the bullet.

Why do I have this picture in my head of Peter Falk dashing about and screaming: Zig-Zag?

37 posted on 03/13/2003 4:42:37 PM PST by Old Professer
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To: vannrox
That picture just about says it all.

Communist China = Nazi Germany
38 posted on 03/13/2003 4:51:30 PM PST by HighRoadToChina (Never Again!)
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To: weikel
"China is a lot more business friendly and free market oriented then anywhere in the Western hemisphere with the possible exception of Switzerland."

You forgot to mention about the millions in Laogai slave labor concentration camps, making those wonderful fake flowers, rosaries, etc. for the good old Wal-Marts and K-marts of the world. And the rest that get paid $.12 per hour.

Free Trade =/= Slave Labor
39 posted on 03/13/2003 4:54:28 PM PST by HighRoadToChina (Never Again!)
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To: Cap'n Crunch
Thanks for doing your part.

The real key is a massive grassroots boycott of all products made in China.

Coming soon to a town near you!
40 posted on 03/13/2003 4:56:04 PM PST by HighRoadToChina (Never Again!)
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