China, which executes more people than the rest of...

China, which executes more people than the rest of the world put together, held its first public discussion of the death penalty, where legal experts called for the abolition of the capital punishment. While scholars in China have debated the pros and cons of death penalty for more than 200 years, these days the battle of opinions has evolved into a debate on how to limit the use of capital punishment and gradually phase it out. "Strict limitation of death sentences and their gradual abolishment is the mainstream view in China these days," said the Guangzhou-based 'Southern Weekend' newspaper, which carried the first report of the conference held in December 2002 in Xiangtan, Hunan province. The death penalty conference gathered more than 30 legal experts from China and abroad, in what the paper said was the first open discussion of the topic in the country. The meeting however, did not make public any figures of the number of people executed in China in past years. Secret Communist Party documents published in a new book, 'China's New Rulers', reveal that between 1998 and 2001, the police and courts killed some 60,000 people. This is equal to 15,000 deaths a year or 97 percent of the executions in the world. China does not report the number of executions in its state-run press but tellingly, since its first 'Strike Hard' campaign against crime in 1983, the number crimes meriting the toughest punishment has more than doubled from 32 to 73,20 including 28 economic crimes like smuggling, tax evasion and counterfeiting. Supporters of retaining the death penalty argue that it is a deterrent to crime, prevents recidivism and rightfully metes severe crimes with proper retribution. "It is much cheaper than imprisoning people for the long term," argued one scholar quoted in the 'Southern Weekend'. "It only takes one shot or one injection while long-term jail sentences are drain on state coffers." But critics are firing back with counter-arguments. They point out that Hong Kong and Macau, two former colonies - one was returned to China in 1997 and the other in 1999 - have already abolished the capital punishment. Since China signed the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998, opponents of the ultimate sanction have gained the upper hand. They see the abolishment of the capital punishment as a protection of the right to life and say China should stop arbitrarily using the capital punishment. "China is preparing to ratify the U.N. treaty and in the future our country's legal practices must come close to matching international practices demanded by the covenant," said Chen Zhonglin, law professor at Xinan Politics and Law University. "The death penalty is not a panacea for crimes," said Li Yunlong, a defence lawyer who has been campaigning against its arbitrary use for 18 years and has written four books on the subject. "Many people were executed during these 'Strike Hard' campaigns but China's crime and corruption are growing." Even ardent campaigners such as the lawyer Li agree however that it will take a long time for China before the authorities and the public cease to see the death penalty as a deterrent for crimes. Some say that the chief obstacle to abolition is not the government but public opinion, and that there is an urgent need for a national campaign to educate the masses. Professor Hu Yunteng of the Supreme Court Policy Research Department said it would take about hundred years to gradually abolish the death penalty. But Ma Chengshou, a law professor from Xiangtan University, which hosted the conference, suggested that abolition should take place by 2020 when China is scheduled to reach the level of 'xiaokang', or middle-class prosperity.