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
- JUNE 12, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Jiangmen Intermediate People's Court sentenced...
The Jiangmen Intermediate People's Court sentenced Liao Zhi, 38, to death for manufacturing 730 kg of the narcotic "ice"
- JUNE 9, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Beijing City No 2 Intermediate Court sentenced...
The Beijing City No 2 Intermediate Court sentenced Liu Chunyang, 29, a university graduate and model, to death, suspended for two years, and confiscated all her property, for running a brothel that earned tens of thousands of yuan a day
- JUNE 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Jinhua Municipal Intermediate People's Court implemented...
The Jinhua Municipal Intermediate People's Court implemented the death sentence on He Shi and Qiu Xuanming for evading huge amounts of taxes using false value-added tax invoices
- JUNE 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Huang Faxiang, former director of the State Land Resources...
Huang Faxiang, former director of the State Land Resources of Fengdu County, Chongqing Municipality, was executed for grafting more than 15 million yuan (1
- JUNE 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Dandong Municipal Intermediate People's Court in...
The Dandong Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Liaoning sentenced Song Jie and Huang He to death for armed murder in Dandong on December12, 1999
- JUNE 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Expanding the experimental use of lethal injections,...
Expanding the experimental use of lethal injections, authorities in Sichuan province used the method to execute eight people following an order by the Supreme People's Court
- JUNE 7, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Taiyuan Municipal Intermediate People's Court passed...
The Taiyuan Municipal Intermediate People's Court passed a death sentence on convicted criminal Li Xiaolong 35
- JUNE 5, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Wu Biao, ex-director of the Jiangdong business department...
Wu Biao, ex-director of the Jiangdong business department under the Ningbo International Fiduciary Investment Company was sentenced to death for taking and offering bribes
- JUNE 2, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Shaowu City sentenced to death Liu Daming for obtaining...
Shaowu City sentenced to death Liu Daming for obtaining public funds through corruption
- JUNE 2, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Jining Municipal Intermediate People's Court passed...
The Jining Municipal Intermediate People's Court passed death sentence on Li Jie with a two-year reprieve for intentional homicide
- JUNE 2, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
22 people were executed in Beijing after the Supreme...
22 people were executed in Beijing after the Supreme People's Court upheld their sentences for murder, armed robbery, kidnapping and rape
- JUNE 1, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
June 23-26, 2000: the Higher People's Court pronounced...
June 23-26, 2000: the Higher People's Court pronounced the execution of seven principal drug traffickers including Zhang Qingai, Mo Daiqin, Jiang Xixin, Cheng Hua, Cheng Yun, Liu Guifen and Sun Gaolin
- JUNE 1, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Sichuan Provincial Higher People's Court approved...
The Sichuan Provincial Higher People's Court approved the death sentence on Gui Weishu for abducting and murdering Qu Chaoliang, a judge of the Xuanhan County Court
- MAY 30, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Wang Zhiliang, the principal culprit of an extraordinary...
Wang Zhiliang, the principal culprit of an extraordinary tax evasion case causing economic losses of over 20m yuan to the State, was executed in Huludao, Liaoning
- MAY 30, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A corrupt official, Yang Shuhua, was executed in Hebei...
A corrupt official, Yang Shuhua, was executed in Hebei Renqiu City
- MAY 30, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Five men convicted on various counts of kidnapping,...
Five men convicted on various counts of kidnapping, raping and robbing children were executed, in various places across China, on the eve of Children's Day
- MAY 27, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Shen Weibiao, the 32-year-old manager of a Bank of...
Shen Weibiao, the 32-year-old manager of a Bank of China branch in the city of Shaoguan, was executed for the white-collar crime of diverting funds (1
- MAY 26, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu...
The Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Guangming, the manager of the Liancheng Aluminum Lianhai Integrated Development Company, to death
- MAY 26, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Yu Fengying, a former bus station worker, Wang Xiuying,...
Yu Fengying, a former bus station worker, Wang Xiuying, an unemployed woman, and Hu Jiama, a farmer, were sentenced to death for tricking 57 women between 1993 and 1998 with promises of work or travel to go to other parts of the mainland, where they were
- MAY 23, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Li Changhe, former secretary of the political and law...
Li Changhe, former secretary of the political and law committee of the city of Pingdingshan, central China, and assassins Liu Guoxing, and Yi Zhihong were given the death sentence for his involvement in a hired-killing and bribery scheme by the Intermedia
- MAY 19, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Following a rally held by the Yinchuan Intermediate...
Following a rally held by the Yinchuan Intermediate People's Court to pronounce their sentences, five convicted criminals were taken to the execution ground and executed by a firing squad
- MAY 10, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China's Supreme People's Court announced that Lin Laibao...
China's Supreme People's Court announced that Lin Laibao from Lufeng city in Guangdong Province; Bing Guigang and Xie Zhongying from Huishui County in Guizhou Province; and Liang Kunmin from Suiyang County in Guizhou Province, were guilty of trafficking i
- MAY 1, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
In May four convicted murderers, who conspired to kill...
In May four convicted murderers, who conspired to kill a prosecutor in retaliation for putting them in prison, were given death sentences by the Intermediate People's Court of Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province
- APRIL 29, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China forcibly returned a group of 60 refugees to North...
China forcibly returned a group of 60 refugees to North Korea after they protested and rioted on April 16 over bad treatment in a northeastern Chinese detention centre
- APRIL 28, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China forcibly returned a group of 60 refugees to North...
China forcibly returned a group of 60 refugees to North Korea after they protested and rioted on April 16 over bad treatment in a northeastern Chinese detention center
- APRIL 27, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said in Beijing...
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said in Beijing that China retained the death penalty but controls it strictly and uses it cautiously
- APRIL 26, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China voted against the resolution on the death penalty...
China voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 26 (no
- APRIL 26, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China voted against the resolution on the death penalty...
China voted against the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights (no
- APRIL 26, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Ge Lanzhen and Xu Ruzhen, leaders of a criminal gang...
Ge Lanzhen and Xu Ruzhen, leaders of a criminal gang of 16 people, all of them farmers from Guangnan County, Yunnan Province, were executed in Wenshan after being sentenced to death in November 1999
- APRIL 24, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Liu Yong-zhen from Taiwan and Chen Linsong from Fujian...
Liu Yong-zhen from Taiwan and Chen Linsong from Fujian were given death sentences in trials of first instance in Zhangzhou city, in east China's Fujian Province