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
- JANUARY 11, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Xia Longhua and Zhao Guangkai were sentenced to death...
Xia Longhua and Zhao Guangkai were sentenced to death by the Shanghai Municipal Number Two Intermediate People's Court
- JANUARY 10, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhou Changqing, a former Shaanxi provincial official...
Zhou Changqing, a former Shaanxi provincial official who has misappropriated more than 50 million yuan, was executed
- JANUARY 10, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Cai Xueyuan, a 32-year-old policeman, was sentenced...
Cai Xueyuan, a 32-year-old policeman, was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan Province for stealing firearms and immediately executed
- JANUARY 10, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Three triad members, Chen Zewu, 31, Ke Xingzhi, 37,...
Three triad members, Chen Zewu, 31, Ke Xingzhi, 37, and Lin Zai, 29, were executed
- JANUARY 10, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A couple, Liu Yixia, 37, the wife, a former teller...
A couple, Liu Yixia, 37, the wife, a former teller of the China Scientific and Technological Development Foundation (CSTDF), and her husband, Li Shaoyang, 44, two jobless, was executed for embezzlement of more than 8
- JANUARY 10, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhang Yongda was executed for drug trafficking
Zhang Yongda was executed for drug trafficking
- JANUARY 10, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
President of the Supreme People's Court, told judges...
President of the Supreme People's Court, told judges they should not hesitate to use tough penalties against corrupt cadres and the four "bad elements" of society
- JANUARY 9, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Jur'at Nuri and Abduhalik Abdureshit were executed...
Jur'at Nuri and Abduhalik Abdureshit were executed in Yining city in the Xinjiang region, for working to overthrow Chinese rule
- JANUARY 5, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong businessman who smuggled...
Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong businessman who smuggled 33,000 bibles to China in 2000, may face the death penalty for practicing unauthorized religious worship, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said
- JANUARY 4, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
In accordance with law regarding a large smuggling...
In accordance with law regarding a large smuggling case the Jiangmen City Intermediate People's Court held a public trial on Huang Guolin, a dismissed worker of customs, Fu Zhijian and Hu Yingcong, former staff members of the Taishan customs and sentenced
- JANUARY 4, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Intermediate Peoples Court in Foshan city, Guangdong...
The Intermediate Peoples Court in Foshan city, Guangdong province, sentenced 6 men to death for unrelated murder and manslaughter charges
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China also condemned to death and executed many people...
China also condemned to death and executed many people in accord with the national campaign against corruption, which was strengthened after March's annual session of the National People's Congress
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
On April 14, 2000, Prison governor Jiayong Renqing...
On April 14, 2000, Prison governor Jiayong Renqing of Lhasa jail in Tibet said that the number of prisoners in Tibet jails represents 0
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Domestic consumption of drugs is becoming `more serious...
Domestic consumption of drugs is becoming `more serious with each passing day', according to an official white paper, which acknowledges that `the situation is grim for the anti-drug struggle
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Death sentences are often pronounced in public and...
Death sentences are often pronounced in public and the condemned prisoner is presented to the crowd and forced to bow his head and wear a sign with the name of his crime written on it around his neck
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International believes that in actual fact...
Amnesty International believes that in actual fact the number of death sentences and executions is much higher than the figures in their possession; this is because the Chinese authorities never publish statistics on the death penalty as they are consider
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China still holds the record for executions
China still holds the record for executions
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A revised Criminal Procedure Law came into force in...
A revised Criminal Procedure Law came into force in January 1997
- DECEMBER 29, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
At least 24 Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang Uighur...
At least 24 Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region were executed in 2000 on charges of separatism
- DECEMBER 28, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court upheld...
The Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court upheld a September 24 sentence to death handed out by the Intermediate People's Court of Shanwei City to seven principal members of a 12-men criminal ring, including Zhuo Zhenyuan
- DECEMBER 28, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhu Rongji, the Prime Minister, promised severe punishment...
Zhu Rongji, the Prime Minister, promised severe punishment for those responsible for the fire in a discotheque in the central Chinese city of Luoyang on Christmas night that killed 309 people
- DECEMBER 27, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China announced a new spate of high-level corruption...
China announced a new spate of high-level corruption cases as President Jiang Zemin warned the nation to prepare for a "long-term and arduous" struggle for clean government
- DECEMBER 23, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhao Xujie, a former laundry company manager was executed...
Zhao Xujie, a former laundry company manager was executed in Shanghai for stabbing a bank guard to death during a robbery, on June 5
- DECEMBER 22, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Lin Zhiguo, former deputy director of the Siping City...
Lin Zhiguo, former deputy director of the Siping City Chemical Industry Bureau, was sentenced to death by the Jilin Provincial Higher People's Court for receiving bribes when he was manager of the Siping City Paint Plant
- DECEMBER 22, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Qiao Benping, deputy manager of a state-owned international...
Qiao Benping, deputy manager of a state-owned international trade company in Changchun City of northeast China's Jilin Province, was sentenced to death for embezzlement, misuse of funds and accepting bribes valued at 15
- DECEMBER 22, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Li Yaping, head of a gang of robbers, who organised...
Li Yaping, head of a gang of robbers, who organised 45 robberies and thefts in several Beijing districts, was sentenced to death by the No
- DECEMBER 21, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Yu Bufan, a state engineering company manager, was...
Yu Bufan, a state engineering company manager, was sentenced to death by the Xiamen Intermediate Court for taking bribes worth 2
- DECEMBER 18, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Hebei Higher People's Court examined and approved...
The Hebei Higher People's Court examined and approved the death penalty, to be executed by a firing squad, passed on Li Yonghui, a convict involved in a bombing case in Shijiazhuang that had attracted public attention
- DECEMBER 18, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Five criminals were executed in Beijing after being...
Five criminals were executed in Beijing after being convicted of violent crimes, including murder and armed robbery
- DECEMBER 13, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
At the military-run Medical University in Chongqing,...
At the military-run Medical University in Chongqing, an official confirmed that around 100 kidney transplants a year are carried out and most of the recipients are from South-east Asia