CHINA CLAMPS DOWN ON CRIME WITH A WEEK OF ARRESTS AND EXECUTIONS

Twenty-one police bureaus and people´s courts at various levels in Beijing gathered together to arrest, convict and execute criminals this past week in what has been a desperate attempt by Beijing to curb the raising crime rate. China also made formal recommendations that its courts take severe and quick actions against criminal offenders and encouraged to impose death sentences where necessary.China executed 89 convicted criminals, on April 11th, as part of its nationwide campaign. The executions took place along with mass sentencing rallies nationwide where at least 46 death sentences were handed down, according official state newspapers. The one-day tally was one of the highest on record for China, which executes more people annually than the rest of the world combined. At least 21 criminals were executed in China´s southern town of Shenzhen, while 17 were executed in central Zhengzhou, 28 in Guangzhou and 10 in northern Xian, the China Police Daily said. There were also seven executions in north-east Harbin, five in eastern Anhui province and at least one in Shanghai.Executions in China are usually carried out in public with a single gun shot aimed at the back of the head, with this year seeing the introduction of lethal injection in the country. It is standard government policy to sell the organs of executed prisoners to neighbouring countries. The swiftness and irreversible nature of executions in China, which often occur only a few hours after the convict is sentenced to death with no possibility for appeals, along with their elevated number and Beijing’s encouragement to the courts to punish severely can only lead us to ask the question of how many innocent people will have been killed this week. Several States in America have already introduced a moratorium on executions due to the discovery that innocent people have been killed in the past, and this in a country where it is known for convicts to be on death row for up to 20 years or more before their appeals are finally exhausted.