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
- APRIL 23, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Li Chenglong, former vice-mayor of Guigang in the Guangxi...
Li Chenglong, former vice-mayor of Guigang in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was executed following his conviction and sentencing for accepting bribes of 3
- APRIL 21, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Cao Yufei, Gong Congying and Gao Zhenyu, members of...
Cao Yufei, Gong Congying and Gao Zhenyu, members of a major criminal gang who illegally raised over 500m yuan were sentenced to death in Beijing
- APRIL 19, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Portuguese representative to the UN Human Rights...
The Portuguese representative to the UN Human Rights Commission, Alvaro de Mendonca e Moura, regretted on behalf of the EU and the applicant countries, the Chinese attitude that blocked the voting of a resolution on Human Rights in China through a procedu
- APRIL 19, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Five officials and businessmen from the Chinese capital...
Five officials and businessmen from the Chinese capital were sentenced to death for embezzling public funds
- APRIL 17, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Jin Xiangwu, the owner of a video-game arcade who murdered...
Jin Xiangwu, the owner of a video-game arcade who murdered three primary school pupils over a 2
- APRIL 14, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Prison governor Jiayong Renqing of Lhasa jail in Tibet...
Prison governor Jiayong Renqing of Lhasa jail in Tibet said that the number of prisoners in Tibet jails represents 0
- APRIL 14, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Municipal Higher Court rejected an appeal from...
The Municipal Higher Court rejected an appeal from Hu Weiguo, 45, who received a two-year suspended death sentence on February 3 for setting fire to his house while his 14-year-old daughter was asleep inside the building
- APRIL 14, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Liang Kunmin, a 27-year-old peasant from southwest...
Liang Kunmin, a 27-year-old peasant from southwest China's Guizhou Province, was given the death sentence by a local court in east China's Jiangsu Province for the abduction and rape of five women
- APRIL 11, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
He Xinquan and Gao Xinglong from Shanghai were given...
He Xinquan and Gao Xinglong from Shanghai were given death sentences for torturing a Songjiang District taxi driver to death and burying the corpse in a roadside ditch in East China's Anhui Province
- APRIL 9, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Chen Dequ was executed in Fuzhou
Chen Dequ was executed in Fuzhou
- APRIL 7, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Kong Jia, an unemployed ex-convict was executed in...
Kong Jia, an unemployed ex-convict was executed in Beijing for bludgeoning his parents to death with an iron bar
- APRIL 6, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Yang Wen, 31, was executed in Taiyuan, the capital...
Yang Wen, 31, was executed in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province for raping two university students and killing a female postgraduate student during a failed sexual assault
- APRIL 1, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China has launched a nationwide campaign against the...
China has launched a nationwide campaign against the abduction and selling of women and children, which has become increasingly common in recent years
- MARCH 21, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
At the UN Commission on Human Rights Jaime Gama, Foreign...
At the UN Commission on Human Rights Jaime Gama, Foreign Minister of the EU term president Portugal, said the EU is committed to the dialogue with China on human rights
- MARCH 20, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The EU General Affairs Council condemned China for...
The EU General Affairs Council condemned China for "marking time" by signing international pacts
- MARCH 15, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Deputy Ma Lik said it would not be easy for China and...
Deputy Ma Lik said it would not be easy for China and Hong Kong to sign a mutual assistance agreement on criminal cases because of their differences on the issue of the death penalty
- MARCH 15, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A court in Akesu in the northwestern region of Xinjiang...
A court in Akesu in the northwestern region of Xinjiang gave capital punishment to 11 people, who were shot immediately afterwards
- MARCH 11, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Seven criminals were executed in Tibet recently for murder
Seven criminals were executed in Tibet recently for murder
- MARCH 8, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Hu Changqing, 48, former Jiangxi Province Deputy Governor,...
Hu Changqing, 48, former Jiangxi Province Deputy Governor, was executed in the provincial capital of Nanchang
- FEBRUARY 29, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The EU held in Lisbon a marathon eleven-hour session...
The EU held in Lisbon a marathon eleven-hour session of "dialogue on human rights" with China
- FEBRUARY 25, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
At bilateral talks it was agreed that a British Foreign...
At bilateral talks it was agreed that a British Foreign Office panel on the death penalty would make an early visit to China
- FEBRUARY 17, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling...
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Union to censure China at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
- FEBRUARY 3, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Three people, convicted of forcing more than 50 women...
Three people, convicted of forcing more than 50 women into prostitution after luring them with promises of factory jobs, were executed
- FEBRUARY 2, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Six leaders of a Chinese gang which butchered 77 people...
Six leaders of a Chinese gang which butchered 77 people between February 1998 and March 1999 with meat cleavers and scissors in a year-long orgy of rape and mutilation had been executed in Henan province
- FEBRUARY 2, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Three men were put to death in central Shaanxi province...
Three men were put to death in central Shaanxi province for stealing 15 murals from the tomb of an imperial concubine, Wei Guifei, a favourite of Tang dynasty emperor Li Shiming who lived 1300 years ago
- JANUARY 28, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) approved the death...
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) approved the death sentences handed out by the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court and issued the order of execution for 13 pirates
- JANUARY 26, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Five militants were sentenced to death for separatism,...
Five militants were sentenced to death for separatism, murder, robbery and illegally dealing in weapons and ammunition in connection with a two-year spate of separatist activities across China's northwestern territory of Xinjiang
- JANUARY 25, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Twelve convicted felons were sentenced and executed...
Twelve convicted felons were sentenced and executed in central Henan province, as courts embarked on the annual pre-Lunar New Year flurry of executions
- JANUARY 21, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A Hong Kong man and his mainland accomplice So Kwai-biu...
A Hong Kong man and his mainland accomplice So Kwai-biu and Chen Wei-cheng, both 38, were executed in Guangzhou for the murder of seven people, including an Australian and an American, in southern China
- JANUARY 19, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
He Pu, a 29-year-old computer specialist of the People's...
He Pu, a 29-year-old computer specialist of the People's Bank of China, was shot by order of the Xinjiang Higher People's Court in the regional capital of Urumqi, in the northwestern Xinjiang region