China's security tsar quietly ordered fewer executions...

China's security tsar quietly ordered fewer executions in keeping with a drive by the new leadership to cultivate a gentler image for the authoritarian government, two independent sources said.
China regularly executed more people than the rest of the world put together, for crimes ranging from rape to corruption, to maintain order among a diverse population of 1.3 billion.
"If it's possible to execute fewer people, then execute fewer people," a judicial source quoted the directive by security chief Luo Gan as saying.
"If it's possible not to execute people, then don't execute people," said the source who asked not to be identified.
"This reflects that our society is advanced and civilised," the source said. "Executions lead to family members of death row convicts looking upon society with hatred."
But analysts said the death penalty would not be scrapped in the face of soaring crime spawned by widening income disparities after 20 years of economic reforms that left millions of state workers unemployed and eroded ethics.
China has never announced statistics on the death penalty, a tightly guarded state secret.
But the source told Reuters that China executed about 5,000 people last year.
The People's Supreme Court and the cabinet spokesman's office declined to comment on the figures or on Luo's directive to hand down fewer death sentences.