The Death penalty in China: Just how often is it used?

Wherever you are, welcome to another of my takes on China and this one is a serious one, it's about Capital punishment, or state executions.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as other NGOs which have no presence in China will tell us frequently that China executes more people than any other country in the world but then go on to say the number they execute is a state secret - I have a question - if it's a state secret, how do Amnesty International and all the other NGOs know? one way of them getting information is to cite each other, another is to cite media reports from Western media and another is to cite allegations made by people who are not authorised to speak for fear of recrimination - in other words, anonymous sources, or more appropriately called "trust us Bro' because we wouldn't' lie to you". Well, we do know they lie about some things, so why wouldn't they be lying about this. How do they know China executes more people than the USA - I certainly don't know but there is a lot I do know about China and what I do know makes me really doubt Amnesty International, Safeguard Defender or Human Rights Watch, all of which have agendas and donors who would like us to believe things which are not true of China.

The simple answer is they don't know, they merely speculate that it happens but here's some truth to add to the mix - real truth, from real Chinese information outlets.

While it's true, there are no government department published numbers of the number of executions, there is extensive media coverage, particularly when the event involves a high profile case or a high ranking official. - Human Rights Watch claims there are thousands but then goes on to say, because the number is a "State Secret", they don't really know. However, it most definitely is NOT a state secret as most of the time when someone is sentenced to death it's in the media, in Global Times and China Daily in English too. But what these NGOs never tell us, or if they do, I haven't read it in any of their reports, is that there are hundreds of people sentenced to death in China who are given a two year "suspension" what that means is at the end of two years, it's commuted to life in prison - in China, a life sentence means a minimum of 9 years, so in effect, they will be eligible for parole after 11 years inside.

People who know me know that I will tell the truth and support it when I know something and make observations or give opinions when I can't support something, so speaking about the number of executions in China, I'm not going to regale you with facts I can't prove but I am able to provide insight based on experience and based on several years of absorbing Chinese media - it doesn't lie, but we all know it doesn't tell us everything and that's the reason the NGOs are allowed to get away with this fiction. Whatever you read or see about China from any source in the West, whether that is academic, media, think tank, NGO or political speech, needs to be questioned - but there is no doubt that most murderers and almost all drug smugglers and manufacturers will get the death penalty. But, whether they get executed is an entirely different thing.

The same will, and recently did apply to foreigners in China - there is an American in prison in China right now, he's been sentenced to death but he hasn't been executed, it's highly unlikely that he will be executed because he's been there many years already. There were recently several Canadians sentenced to death too but again, there are two aspects to this story, one is that they are not truly Canadians, or, if they are, they did not rescind their Chinese passports. In China, it's possible to have two passports but it's not possible to have two nationalities; what does that mean? If you are born in China, you are, of course Chinese, if you move to Canada and take up Canadian citizenship, you will be able to apply for a passport from Canada, if you then decide to visit China, you have two choices, one is return on a Chinese passport that you still hold, the other is to apply for a visa in your Canadian passport. If you still have your Chinese passport and visit China using it, you are Chinese, the Canadian citizenship will not be recognised, you left China as a Chinese person on a Chinese passport and you reentered China, without a visa as a Chinese person on a Chinese passport - if you happen to be carrying drugs and get caught, you will get no support from the Canadian embassy because you entered China as a Chinese person. China has no obligation whatsoever to even inform the Canadian government that it has arrested a Chinese person. It's simple really, if you enter on a Canadian passport, they will inform the Embassy, if you enter on a Chinese passport, why would they?

You might have two nationalities, you might only have one and it's Canadian but, if you are smuggling drugs, like the American in Foshan, you will be given the same sentence as a Chinese person. It's a bit hard for countries like the US to accept this as they're so special and many of them believe they are above the law because they have an eagle on the passport but the US will give no concessions to a Chinese person smuggling into the USA, why should the China treat an American differently? In China, no one is above the law, in the USA, no poor people are above the law, only billionaires or politician can get away with anything.

Another interesting comment to make about the death penalty is that there are hardly any murders in China - late last year Guangdong had an event where 35 people were murdered at the same venue by a man with a car mowing down people while exercising, the population of Guangdong is over 110 million and, including that event, only 53 people in the province were murdered, that's 18 people in the other 20 cities.

So, the driver of that vehicle was executed, he pleaded guilty, had attempted suicide but was saved by the prompt action of some police officers and went on trial where he got what many people say he deserved, including my wife's auntie who was exercising in the park and witnessed the entire thing. A week later, there was another, copycat incident where a man did the same thing, he killed no one but injured 17 people - he received a two year suspended death sentence. So clearly China does not execute as many as thousands a year - I doubt if the number reaches even into the hundreds because societal, or violent crime is so low that there isn't much of a need for it.

One thing I do not like, but China has been very open about it, is the execution of a person for financial crimes. It's very rare but it has happened, what usually happens is that a senor government official is caught in a an anti-corruption campaign, they are put on trail, it's in all the media and they are sentenced to death with a two year reprieve, it's rare for these people to be executed and most of them will be home, disgraced and reliant on the generosity of their family, about 12-15 years later.