The regime has recently laid down rules whereby, when they come into effect, there should be less in the way of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. However, before we get the chance to see if it will be honoured, the Chinese execution machine is going out with banners flying as they say. Amnesty International recorded an average of about 20 executions a day in China last year. The figure may well be a fragment of the total because the actual figure is a state secret. Second place went to the Ukraine with a meagre 167.
China wins hands down.
In Shanghai last year the death sentence was given for stealing ball point pens and badminton racquets and a 'hooligan' met his maker for sticking thorns and pointed sticks into the backsides of female cyclists. Not too pleasant granted but, well, I ask you. Truth of the matter is that it is the poor who get it in the neck and 'justice' is often pretty summary with one week trials perhaps something of a luxury. Meanwhile the Taklamakan desert is a more than useful nuclear testing ground. It is therefore annoying the Chinese authorities to find another of those troublesome seperatist groups springing up and causing all kinds of trouble.