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 12, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Yulin City Intermediate People's Court handed down...
The Yulin City Intermediate People's Court handed down a death sentence to Wu Gengyue, former deputy magistrate of Luchuan County for accepting 6
- DECEMBER 12, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Channel Four, a British television, reported that hundreds...
Channel Four, a British television, reported that hundreds of Malaysians on dialysis treatment have gone to China and paid the equivalent of 9C7,500 (S$18,900) to receive kidneys from executed criminals
- DECEMBER 7, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China executed Taiwan national Chen Kun-Zhang for producing...
China executed Taiwan national Chen Kun-Zhang for producing and selling 25kg of the drug "ice"
- NOVEMBER 29, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A court in China's Anhui Province sentenced Xiao Zuoxin,...
A court in China's Anhui Province sentenced Xiao Zuoxin, the former mayor of Fuyang to life imprisonment for corruption and his wife Zhou Jimei to two years of probation followed by death for accepting bribes totalling over 1
- NOVEMBER 24, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A Sichuan court carried out the execution order on...
A Sichuan court carried out the execution order on Lan Yike, a cadre of the Sichuan Province Foreign Exchange Administration Bureau, for embezzling public funds
- NOVEMBER 23, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Nanjing Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced...
The Nanjing Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced Sui Zhennan, director of the Gaoxin Development Zone, Nanjing Sub-Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes and corruption
- NOVEMBER 23, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Changchun Municipal Intermediate People's Court...
The Changchun Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced Lu Mang and Meng Wie to death for financial fraud
- NOVEMBER 23, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Lai Changxing, 46, said to be the mastermind of a multi-billion-dollar...
Lai Changxing, 46, said to be the mastermind of a multi-billion-dollar smuggling ring in Hong Kong and the Fujian province in China, was arrested at a casino at Niagara Falls, and taken to Vancouver
- NOVEMBER 22, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Peng Farong, the chairman of China Tianping Enterprises,...
Peng Farong, the chairman of China Tianping Enterprises, was executed with the approval of the Supreme Court, for colluding with Xuan Ying, the section chief of a savings unit of the Communications Bank Kunming Branch to use high interests to lure the Yu
- NOVEMBER 22, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Seven Chinese citizens were executed by a bullet after...
Seven Chinese citizens were executed by a bullet after the Intermediate People's Court in the western city of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Autonomous Region sentenced them publicly for crimes including robbery, arson, murder and rape
- NOVEMBER 20, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Hao Ruiduan, ex-director of Huaiyang County Grain Bureau...
Hao Ruiduan, ex-director of Huaiyang County Grain Bureau in central China's Henan Province, was executed for the killing of a deputy curator of Huaiyang County Museum, Li Genghai
- NOVEMBER 20, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
At least four criminals were executed in Beijing for...
At least four criminals were executed in Beijing for murder, rape and robbery
- NOVEMBER 17, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Seven people who, disguised as soldiers, had stolen...
Seven people who, disguised as soldiers, had stolen guns and cars and killed 19 people in the southwestern province of Yunnan, were executed
- NOVEMBER 16, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zheng Daofang, the former deputy director of the Communications...
Zheng Daofang, the former deputy director of the Communications Department of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, was sentenced to death by the Sichuan Higher People's Court for accepting bribes and possessing huge properties without a known source for th
- NOVEMBER 15, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Five men were executed in the Yunnan province for trafficking...
Five men were executed in the Yunnan province for trafficking the drug "ice"
- NOVEMBER 14, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Wang Guoqing, 22, convicted of killing an officer Yuan...
Wang Guoqing, 22, convicted of killing an officer Yuan Shiguang, was executed after being sentenced to death by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court on September 4
- NOVEMBER 13, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Han Youfu, a 31-year-old farmer from Hezheng County...
Han Youfu, a 31-year-old farmer from Hezheng County was sentenced to death for trafficking in heroin by a Beijing Intermediate People's Court
- NOVEMBER 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A Central Discipline Inspection commission and the...
A Central Discipline Inspection commission and the Supervision Ministry said that from September 2000, the Xiamen, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Putian Intermediate People's Courts tried 84 defendants involved in 25 cases
- NOVEMBER 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Ying Min, 41, a native of Jinyun county in Zhejiang...
Ying Min, 41, a native of Jinyun county in Zhejiang province, was executed for making out added value tax invoices illegally
- NOVEMBER 3, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Hunan Changsha Intermediate People's Court sentenced...
The Hunan Changsha Intermediate People's Court sentenced Ou Yang Song, the Director of the Industry and Commerce Bureau of Hunan Province, and Liao Zizhong, the Deputy Director of the Bureau, to death with a two-year reprieve for abuse of power and accept
- OCTOBER 30, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Ningbo City Intermediate People's Court sentenced...
The Ningbo City Intermediate People's Court sentenced Jiang Biming, the Legal Representative of Ningbo Tax Bond Zone Material Supply Company, to death with a reprieve of two years
- OCTOBER 28, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhao Wei, Zhang Enju and Zhang Yuchun were executed...
Zhao Wei, Zhang Enju and Zhang Yuchun were executed after being convicted of five armed robberies in Yingkou city, in the northeastern Liaoning province, between October 1997 and April 1998
- OCTOBER 25, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The European Union's External Affairs Commissioner...
The European Union's External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, who served as the last British governor of Hong Kong before it reverted to Beijing, said that he regrets that China continues to make almost daily use of the death penalty
- OCTOBER 24, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Zhangzhou City Intermediate People's Court sentenced...
The Zhangzhou City Intermediate People's Court sentenced Lai Jinglin, the Director of the Shiwei and Longwen Sub-Branch of the Bank of China's Zhangzhou Branch, to death for embezzling 44
- OCTOBER 24, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Four convicted criminals were executed in the Jiangsu...
Four convicted criminals were executed in the Jiangsu province after being convicted of kidnapping and selling women and girls into prostitution in southern Hainan province between 1997 and in 1999
- OCTOBER 21, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Russian border guards were officially informed that...
Russian border guards were officially informed that the People's Supreme Court of Zilin had sentenced Cen Ango, 30, to death for the murder of a Russian border guard five years ago
- OCTOBER 17, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Dian Guoyen a former deputy executive general manager...
Dian Guoyen a former deputy executive general manager of Sinopec Hubei Xinghua Co
- OCTOBER 16, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Central Commission of Political Science and Law...
The Central Commission of Political Science and Law of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Central Committee announced that from early September to October 15, the political science and law departments nationwide pronounced judgment on 158,500 criminal and
- OCTOBER 12, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Zhuzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced...
The Zhuzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced Li Guiju (female), Li Xiaojun, Li Qiugao and Luo Yongguo to death
- SEPTEMBER 29, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A session of the EU/China "dialogue on human rights"...
A session of the EU/China "dialogue on human rights" took place in Beijing