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 17, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA SENTENCES ONE TO DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
a gang of six people were given sentences ranging from death to 15 years in jail
- DECEMBER 17, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL SENTENCED TO DEATH IN CHINA
Xuan Xiong, a top fisheries official in southern China's Guangdong province was sentenced to death for the murder of a man that was to take over his job...
- DECEMBER 17, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA CHIEF SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING AMBITIOUS DEPUTY
a chief who killed his ambitious deputy in Guangdong Province in China was sentenced to death
- DECEMBER 11, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: VILLAGE HEAD GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER
a village chief in central China's Henan Province was sentenced to death...
- DECEMBER 6, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINESE HIGHWAY EXECUTIVE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR CORRUPTION
a transport executive accused of corruption involving a total of 50 million yuan (US$6.8 million) was sentenced to death in north eastern China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
- DECEMBER 5, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR PAIR WHO KILLED EIGHT IN CRIME SPREE
two men were sentenced to death after going on a nationwide crime spree in which they killed eight people, including a two year old boy, state press said.
- DECEMBER 3, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN SENTENCED DEATH FOR BURNING PREGNANT GIRL
a man was sentenced to death by the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court in China for burning his pregnant girlfriend because the child she was carrying was a girl.
- DECEMBER 3, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: DEATH SENTENCES FOR PAIR WHO KILLED RIVAL
Li Shuangjian, a woman from Anhui Province in China, and a friend were sentenced to death...
NOVEMBER 29, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA. PENALTY GUIDELINES SET FOR FAKE DRUGS
a draft judicial interpretation spells out the circumstances in which life sentences or the death penalty can be
- NOVEMBER 26, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPING GIRLS AS YOUNG AS 8
a court in Xiamen, a coastal city in east China's Fujian Province, sentenced a man to death for raping and sexually assaulting girls aged between eight and twelve.
- NOVEMBER 25, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: OFFICIAL SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG SMUGGLING
Zheng Guoliang, former deputy to the Anhui Provincial People's Congress in east China, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for drug smuggling and illegal gun possession, local sources confirmed
NOVEMBER 23, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA. SUSPENDED DEATH SENTENCES EXCEED IMMEDIATE EXECUTIONS FOR 1ST TIME
the number of suspended death sentences handed down this year in China
- NOVEMBER 22, 2007CanadaDEATH PENALTY
CAR SMUGGLING GANG LEADER GETS DEATH PENALTY
the leader of a smuggling ring was given the death penalty, suspended for two years...
- NOVEMBER 21, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
COURT UPHOLDS SUSPENDED DEATH SENTENCE IN S CHINA
the Higher People's Court in south China's Guangdong Province upheld a suspended death sentence for a mentally ill man who murdered four family members and an employee with a hammer.
- NOVEMBER 19, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: WOMAN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER
a woman was sentenced to death by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in China for murdering two old men at her home in 2006.
- NOVEMBER 16, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: DRUG KINGPIN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN BEIJING
a drug kingpin was sentenced to death in Beijing, China, in the largest drug-manufacturing case ever busted in the capital.
- NOVEMBER 15, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINESE COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR COMPANY OFFICIAL OVER GRAFT
a Chinese court upheld a death penalty for a highway construction company manager who grafted and embezzled more than 110 million yuan (US$14.8 million).
- NOVEMBER 14, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
FORMER DIPLOMAT SENTENCED TO DEATH IN CHINA, SANKEI REPORTS
a former Chinese diplomat who served in Japan until 2001 was sentenced to death in China on charges he provided military information to a Japanese national, the Sankei newspaper reported from Beijing
NOVEMBER 12, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA. SEPARATISTS FACE DEATH PENALTY
A Chinese court has sentenced six “terrorists” to death or life imprisonment for
- NOVEMBER 1, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: TWO SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF COP
in China, a Beijing court sentenced two cousins from Henan Province to death for murdering a police officer. Zhang Xinlei, 24, and Zhang Xinliang, 35, were convicted in Beijing No 1 People's Court of killing Tang Chengwen, 39, a police officer in Beijing'
- OCTOBER 23, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINESE COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR JAPANESE NATIONAL
CHINESE COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR JAPANESE NATIONAL
OCTOBER 9, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA. ORGANS FROM DEATH ROW INMATES ONLY FOR FAMILY
China will no longer transplant organs from executed prisoners except for their immediate
- OCTOBER 9, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
HRW. CHINA SHOULD ISSUE MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS BEFORE OLYMPICS
China should impose a moratorium on all executions as a goodwill gesture before
- OCTOBER 4, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
NORTHERN IRELAND. KILLER FACES EXECUTION IF DEPORTED ARGUES QC
a Chinese man who stabbed a fellow illegal immigrant to death in south Belfast,
- OCTOBER 2, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR TORTURING EX-GIRLFRIEND
a man from northwest China's Shaanxi Province was sentenced to death with a two year reprieve and deprived of his political rights for life for torturing and attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend.
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA. 3 DEATH SENTENCES IN CHINA FOR RAT POISON CRIMES OF PASSION
three people were sentenced to death in China this week for murdering their partners with rat poison.
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA THREATENS DEATH PENALTY FOR COPPER THIEVES
China is threatening the death penalty for people who steel copper wire, thereby destroying power lines and disrupting telecommunications, state media said.
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR 2 BANK EMPLOYEES
the Higher People's Court in North China's Hebei Province upheld the death sentence of two bank employees responsible for the country's largest ever bank theft involving 50.95 million yuan, given by a lower court in August.
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINESE MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER, ROBBERY
a man from east China's Anhui province was sentenced to death by a Shanghai court for killing four people during two robberies.
- SEPTEMBER 14, 2007ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA. TIBETAN MAN EXECUTED
according to reports received by ICT,