State media have reported mass arrests in both regions. Those executed in Xinjiang have included convicted separatists. Xinjiang television showed huge crowds at public sentencing rallies, with the condemned paraded on trucks before their execution. Since 1983, there have been four Strike Hard campaigns in China, which in sheer numbers has long led the world in executions. China's government hopes the campaign will shore up public confidence in its ability to keep crime rates under control.
Chinese leaders regard executions as an effective deterrent to crime.
The death penalty also enjoys widespread support among Chinese who feel their streets have grown less safe in two decades of economic reforms that have thrown millions out of work. The campaign appears to be gaining steam. State media daily report new rounds of executions. In 1996, during China's last Strike Hard campaign, more than 4,400 were shot, said Amnesty, a London-based group that opposes the death penalty. In Strike Hard, Beijing has borrowed a few tricks from its mass political campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s.