Corruption Is Targeted Executions for economic crimes are extremely popular, particularly as the poor in China watch a swelling elite enrich itself through shady practices or misuse of public funds. Ancient proverbs reinforce the need for retribution and for heavy punishment to deter others. Justice can be brutally swift, with reports of some executions occurring hours after a sentencing. Due process is often a phantom. Chinese law requires that the nation's highest judicial body, the Supreme People's Court, review all death sentences, but the high court regularly delegates the responsibility to provincial judges.
Executions are mostly by gunshot, sometimes to the back of the head at point-blank range.
At least one province is experimenting with lethal injection. But there is growing demand among many Chinese scholars for the regime to rein in capital punishment. Academics point out that a reduction of the death penalty's scope is necessary to bring China in line with the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Beijing has signed but not yet ratified. Beijing has eliminated the death penalty for criminals younger than 18. Lesser infractions, such as petty theft and mild forms of hooliganism, were struck from the list of capital offenses in 1997.