We try to encourage China to adopt some kind of moratorium on the death penalty, maybe an experimental moratorium in one province or two. So far, Beijing has rejected the suggestion. A sizable proportion of the population, dismayed by a jump in crime rates, wants to see the use of capital punishment expanded even further, as has happened to a degree in the United States. 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.