China
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · In January, the Nanyang Intermediate People's Court...
- News items in the archive
- 2,796
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
China is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 2,796 news items on China, from 1999 to today.
China is believed to carry out more executions than any other country, but the figure is a state secret: no official statistics exist, and the known cases are those reported by the press or heard in public trials. Capital punishment applies to a large number of offences, including economic and drug offences, and the system also provides for a death sentence with a two year suspension, which in practice is often converted into life imprisonment.
The news on this page is a small part of what happens, and it is the part that can be documented.
Latest news
- DECEMBER 9, 2011PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
FILIPINO EXECUTED IN CHINA FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
in Liuzhou, China, an unidentified Philippino man, 35, was executed for drug trafficking.
- DECEMBER 6, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH WITH REPRIEVE FOR STABBING BUS DRIVER
the passenger who fatally stabbed a bus driver over the volume of the onboard television was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court says.
- DECEMBER 1, 2011PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
VP BINAY TO APPEAL PINOY'S DEATH SENTENCE IN CHINA
the Filipino Department of Foreign Affairs said that it is already arranging a possible trip for Vice President Jejomar Binay to China to personally appeal for the a 35-year-old male overseas Filipino worker scheduled to be executed on December 8 for smug
- NOVEMBER 28, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA TO EXECUTE FILIPINO DEC. 8 DESPITE PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT’S APPEAL
the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing, China, upheld the drug trafficking conviction of an unidentified 35-year-old Filipino man and set his execution for December 8.
NOVEMBER 25, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA GIVES DEATH SENTENCE IN TAINTED PORK SCANDAL
China sentenced Liu Xiang to death with two years' reprieve for harming public
- NOVEMBER 23, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: RUSSIAN WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN CHINA FOR DRUG-TRAFFICKING
Russian national Marina Lopatina, 37, a Khabarovsk resident, was sentenced to death with a two year reprieve by a court in the Chinese city of Zhuhai, the Russian Embassy in Beijing said.
NOVEMBER 22, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN EXECUTED OVER CHILD RAPE
in China, Lishui karaoke bar owner Chen Weijun, 42, was executed for raping 14
- NOVEMBER 14, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA TO EXECUTE THREE FOR HOTEL ARSON
three men are to be executed in China for setting fire to a hotel in the northeast province
NOVEMBER 9, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: THREE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING TAX OFFICIAL, FAMILY
three people were sentenced to death for killing a tax official and three of his family members in
NOVEMBER 9, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: CITY OFFICIAL EXECUTED FOR GRAFT
A city official convicted of graft was executed in China after the highest court approved her death sentence, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
NOVEMBER 8, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR GRAFT BOSS
in China, former boss of the Shanghai Pharmacy Group Wu Jianwen, 42, was sentenced
- NOVEMBER 7, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: BROTHERS, FATHER GET DEATH SENTENCE FOR FRAUD
two brothers and their father were sentenced to death for cheating 15,000 investors out
SEPTEMBER 29, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN EXECUTED AFTER RARE RETRIAL
a man convicted of killing a young woman and her 3-year-old brother after his offer
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: TWO SENTENCED TO DEATH
the Intermediate People's Court of Xiangtan, in China's Hunan Province, sentenced Wang Yongzhong, the
SEPTEMBER 22, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: PRISONS ALLOW DEATH ROW INMATES TO MEET RELATIVES
China has made strides in protecting the human rights of prison inmates in recent years, including
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011PakistanDEATH PENALTYCHINA: PAKISTANI MAN EXECUTED ON DRUGS CHARGES
China executed by lethal injection Pakistani man Zahid Husain Shah, 35, in Shanghai. He was
- SEPTEMBER 20, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
SINGAPORE: CHINESE NATIONAL GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR CABBY MURDER
in Singapore, High Court Justice Lee Seiu Kin sentenced odd-job labourer and Chinese national Wang Wenfeng, 32, to death for murdering taxi driver Yuen Swee Hong, 58, in an attempted robbery in Sembawang on April 11, 2009.
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: BEIJING MAN EXECUTED FOR KILLING SIX OF HIS FAMILY
Li Lei, 31, was executed in Beijing, China, for killing his parents, two sons, wife and sister to death on November 23, 2009, at their home in Beijing's Daxing District
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA MUST HALT EXECUTION OF PAKISTAN NATIONAL
the Chinese government should halt the imminent execution of a Pakistan national, Amnesty International said. Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, a 36-year-old-Pakistani businessman, is due to be executed by lethal injection on September 21.
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: CIVIL SERVANT GETS SUSPENDED DEATH PENALTY FOR EMBEZZLEMENT
Liu Di, an accountant from a taxation bureau in Heshan District of Yiyang city in Central Hunan province, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for embezzling 18 million yuan from 2000 to 2010, according to the first instance judgement of the Yi
SEPTEMBER 13, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: 4 UIGHUR MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER ATTACKS
four ethnic minority men were sentenced to death for the latest spate of violent attacks
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2011PakistanDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: PAKISTANI FAMILY APPEALS TO CHINA OVER DEATH SENTENCE
the family of Pakistani national Zahid Hussain appealed to the Chinese authorities to commute his death sentence for drug trafficking to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINESE EXECUTED FOR ATTACKING FEMALE STUDENTS
a man who repeatedly stabbed female students over four years, leaving one dead and 23
SEPTEMBER 1, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: 2 EXECUTED AFTER COURT TURNS DOWN THEIR APPEAL
in northeast China, property developer Wang Wenxiang, 51, and his secretary
- AUGUST 30, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
DEATH FOR CHINA MOBILE MAN
China handed Li Hua, former chairman and general manager of the Sichuan branch of China Mobile
- AUGUST 22, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH AGAIN
the Zhaotong Provincial Higher People's Court in southwest China's Yunnan Province sentenced Li Changkui to death.
- AUGUST 19, 2011Sri LankaDEATH PENALTY
SRI LANKA: FIVE CHINESE SENTENCED TO DEATH
five Chinese nationals were sentenced to death in Sri Lanka, two in absentia, for murdering
- AUGUST 18, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA EXECUTES MAN FOR RUNNING OVER MONGOL HERDER
according to the official Xinhua News Agency, China executed truck driver
- AUGUST 15, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR ABDUCTION OF CHILDREN, MURDER
Umair Tohti was sentenced to death in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for abducting children and murder, the Urumqi Municipal Intermediate People's Court announced.
- AUGUST 10, 2011ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: SUSPENDED DEATH PENALTY UPHELD OVER TAINTED PORK SCANDAL
in central China, the Henan Provincial Higher People's Court upheld the death sentence with a two-year reprieve for Liu Xiang for "endangering public security using dangerous means" for feeding pigs the dangerous chemical clenbuterol in a tainted pork sca