Capital punishment in China: the highest number of executions in the world

According to estimates, no country in the world executes more people than China. Because how high the number actually is, the communist government is hiding.

Around 50 criminal offenses can be punished with death in the Chinese legal system. This also includes some non-violent crimes such as drug smuggling, corruption or the betrayal of state secrets. In China, executions are carried out by lethal injection and firearms.

Data remain a state secret

Human rights organizations assume that thousands of people are sentenced to death in the People’s Republic every year. Amnesty International estimates that China executed far more people last year than the rest of the world combined.

The exact number is a state secret. Documentation is therefore not possible. State and party leaders say the death penalty is rare and the number of executions has dropped. This cannot be verified independently.

Hardly fair processes

Human rights activists describe the death penalty as inhumane and call on the communist government to abolish executions altogether. So does Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. The Chinese government has said in recent years that death sentences are more effectively reviewed at higher levels in the judiciary, Richardson said. “It is unacceptable to carry out human rights violations more efficiently. They should be eliminated completely,” she says.

Observers criticize that court proceedings in China do not meet international standards for fair trials. There is no rule of law in China, trials often take place behind closed doors, and almost all charges end in a conviction. According to human rights organizations, the accused and their family members are often intimidated and confessions are extorted.