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
- 2,785
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 2,785 news items on China, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
MARCH 21, 2023ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN WHO KILLED WIFE EXECUTED IN HANGZHOU
Xu Guoli, who killed his wife in 2020, was executed on 21 March 2023 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, after the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court approved his death sentence, which was handed down in July 2021.
DECEMBER 26, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: FORMER MAYOR RECEIVES SUSPENDED DEATH SENTENCE FOR CORRUPTION
A former mayor of Hegang, a city in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on 23 December 2022 for multiple crimes involving corruption, according to a local court.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: OFFICIAL GETS DEATH FOR CORRUPTION INVOLVING 3B YUAN
Li Jianping, a former senior Party official in the economic and technological development zone in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was sentenced to death for multiple crimes on 27 September 2022.
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: EX-VICE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SECURITY SENTENCED TO DEATH WITH TWO-YEAR REPRIEVE
Sun Lijun, former Chinese vice minister of public security, on 23 September 2022 was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking more than 646 million yuan of bribes, manipulating the stock market, and illegally possessing firearms, according t
SEPTEMBER 22, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: FORMER SENIOR OFFICIAL FU ZHENGHUA SENTENCED TO DEATH WITH REPRIEVE
Former senior official Fu Zhenghua on 22 September 2022 was sentenced to
- SEPTEMBER 21, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN WHO ARRANGED GIRLFRIEND'S MURDER SENTENCED TO DEATH
A man in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, who lured his girlfriend to faraway Yunnan province and then asked two accomplices to kill her, was sentenced to death in Kunming, Yunnan on 20 September 2022.
AUGUST 30, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: U.S. CITIZEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER LOSES APPEAL
A U.S. citizen sentenced to death by a Chinese court for "intentional homicide" of his former girlfriend lost his appeal on 25 August 2022, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
- JULY 24, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: KILLER OF POPULAR VLOGGER LAMU EXECUTED
A Chinese man was executed by a court in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on 23 July 2022 for setting his ex-wife, who was also a Chinese Douyin influencer, on fire during livestream and caused the latter's death.
- JULY 20, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: 3 MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF NANJING STUDENT
Three men on 7 July 2022 were sentenced to death for the murder of Li Mouyue in Menghai county, Yunnan province.
- JUNE 7, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: EX-SECURITIES REGULATOR HANDED SUSPENDED DEATH SENTENCE
Tong Daochi, a former senior Chinese official who has worked at the World Bank, has been given a suspended death sentence for bribery.
- APRIL 24, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: AMERICAN MURDER SUSPECT SENTENCED TO DEATH
Shadeed Abdulmateen, an American national, was sentenced to death for intentional homicide by the Intermediate People's Court of Ningbo City in east China's Zhejiang Province on 21 April 2022.
- APRIL 6, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTY
SURGEONS EXECUTED CHINESE PRISONERS FOR ORGANS, SAYS ANU STUDY
A new Australian study says it has unearthed evidence that surgeons in China have harvested the hearts of death row prisoners before they were medically brain-dead.
MARCH 9, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: CHIEF JUSTICE CALLS FOR DEATH PENALTY FOR ‘CRUEL TREATMENT’ OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY
China’s chief justice has called for the death penalty for serious offences involving “cruel treatment” of women, children and the elderly, in an apparent response to public fury over recently exposed human trafficking cases.
JANUARY 19, 2022ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: 2 TO SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SMUGGLING DRUGS TO TAIWAN
A Chinese court has sentenced 2 people to death for attempting to smuggle 400 kilograms of methamphetamine by sea from Southeast Asia to Taiwan, state media reported on 12 January 2022.
DECEMBER 29, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR MAN WHO THREW CHILDREN OUT WINDOW AND GIRLFRIEND WHO INSTIGATED THE MURDERS
A couple from western China’s Chongqing municipality were both sentenced to death on 28 December 2021 for conspiring to kill the man’s two young children from a previous marriage so they could start a new family.
- OCTOBER 31, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: HONGKONGER WITH HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS EXECUTED OVER DRUG TRAFFICKING
A Hong Kong man who suffered from hallucinations and other mental health problems has been executed in mainland China where he was sentenced to death in 2017 for drug trafficking.
OCTOBER 14, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR MAN WHO SET FIRE ON LIVESTREAMING EX-WIFE
A man was sentenced to death by a court in southwest China on 14 October 2021 for dousing his ex-wife with gasoline and setting her on fire after she refused to get back with him.
- OCTOBER 3, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: FORMER PRESTIGIOUS COLLEGE ALUMNI SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR BRUTALLY KILLING HIS MOTHER
A young man who murdered his mother in 2015, a high-profile case as he was a student at the prestigious Peking University, was sentenced to death by a court in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province, on 26 August 2021.
- SEPTEMBER 21, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN WHO KILLED HIS PREGNANT WIFE SENTENCED TO DEATH
Yan Haojie, the man who killed his pregnant wife after she refused to help him repay his gambling debts, has been sentenced to death, the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court announced on 30 July 2021.
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SERIES OF KILLINGS
A woman was sentenced to death on 9 September 2021 by a court in east China for a series of murders, robbery and kidnappings which caused seven deaths and shocked the nation.
AUGUST 10, 2021CanadaDEATH PENALTYCHINA - Death sentence upheld for Robert Lloyd Schellenberg
Pressure for Canada not to extradite "Lady Huawei" to the US.
JULY 17, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING PANDEMIC CONTROL VOLUNTEER
A man in the northeast China city of Harbin was sentenced to death on 15 July 2021 for killing a pandemic control volunteer who stopped him from leaving a residential complex under lockdown, a court said.
JUNE 1, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: DEATH PENALTY FOR TEACHER WHO RAPED MULTIPLE STUDENTS
A Chinese teacher at an elementary school has been sentenced to death in August 2020 for raping several students from 2001 to 2020, the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office of China said on 31 May 2021 at a press conference.
MAY 20, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER OF FEMALE JUDGE
A woman was sentenced to death on 19 May 2021 after a court in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, identified her as having murdered a judge at the beginning of this year.
- MAY 10, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH WITH A SUSPENDED DEATH SENTENCE FOR INTENTIONAL HOMICIDE
Nanchong Intermediate People’s Court recently sentenced to death a man for intentional homicide, with a two-year reprieve depriving him of political rights for life, China News reported on 7 May 2021.
APRIL 7, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: UIGHUR FORMER-GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR 'SEPARATISM'
Two Uighur ex-government officials in China's Xinjiang have been handed death sentences for carrying out "separatist activities", a court said.
- MARCH 3, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA EXECUTES MAN WHO KILLED HIS MUM FOR THE MONEY TO BUY AN APARTMENT
A man who electrocuted, then bludgeoned his mother to death to claim an insurance payout so he could buy a flat was executed on 24 February 2021 in China.
FEBRUARY 6, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: SERIAL KILLER AND RAPIST EXECUTED IN HEBEI
High-profile serial killer Wang Shujin, 53, was executed in Hebei province on 2 February 2021 after his death sentence for rape and intentional killing was approved by the Supreme People's Court.
- FEBRUARY 4, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH WITH TWO-YEAR REPRIEVE FOR BEIJING HOSPITAL KNIFE ATTACK
A Beijing court on 2 February 2021 handed a death sentence with a two-year reprieve to a man who injured four people with a knife at a hospital in the city.
FEBRUARY 3, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN EXECUTED FOR ABDUCTING AND RAPING A 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL
The Qinzhou Intermediate People's Court in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on 2 February 2021 carried out the execution of Yang Guangyi, who raped a 10-year-old girl.