China defends execution record

BBC News | February 1, 2005

China executes more prisoners than the rest of the world combined - some 1,700 people in 1998, including children and drunk drivers - according to Amnesty International.

The human rights group said the real number could be much higher because only a fraction of executions are publicly reported.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said the report was irresponsible, adding that the country's judges exercised great prudence over when to enforce the death penalty.

He said death sentences were usually commuted to life in prison if prisoners displayed good behaviour, and he ruled out any abolition of capital punishment.

The London-based human rights watchdog recorded 2,701 death sentences in China in 1998 from its monitoring of public reports.

It accused China of executing political prisoners in the north-western region of Xinjiang, where militants have been fighting for independence, and extracting confessions through torture.

China faces human rights protests on many fronts
"Trials are a mere formality, with the verdict usually decided by the authorities before the trial," Amnesty said.

"Convictions are frequently based on forced confessions and statements extracted under torture."

It said defendants had been sentenced to death for a range of non-violent crimes, including drunk driving, tax fraud, embezzlement and credit card theft.

In one case, Wang Guojun was sentenced to death in Tianjin in March 1998 for drunk driving and knocking down a pedestrian who was left to die.

Crime in China, virtually eliminated after the Communists came to power in 1949, has risen in the wake of economic reforms and widespread poverty.

'Strike hard'

The increase in executions during anti-crime campaigns, such as the ongoing "strike hard" campaign, and before public holidays was also attacked.

Amnesty recorded more than 25,500 death sentences in China from 1990 to 1998, with more than 16,760 executions, an average of at least 2,800 death sentences and 1,850 confirmed executions each year.

It argues that the death penalty constitutes "cruel, inhuman degrading punishment" and violates the "rights to life" enshrined in international human rights agreements.