In November 1997, the Parliament approved the death...

In November 1997, the Parliament approved the death penalty for gun-toting criminals, toughening already strict gun laws in the face of a public outcry over violent crime. The death penalty is in force in Taiwan for a range of offenses and is mandatory for 65 of them. The Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry - commonly called the Bandit Law - calls for a mandatory death penalty for a strange mix of offenses, including "organizing groups, in the mountains or marshes, to resist the authority of government officials" and "occupying governmental buildings, cities, towns, railroads or military bases by force" as well as murder, robbery and rape. In all, the Bandit Law lists 10 different offenses which carry a mandatory death penalty. The Law, enacted in 1944, required annual reenactment by Parliament until it was made permanent in 1957. Its original purpose was to provide a kind of "catch-all" statute that would allow the Nationalists to execute a wide range of "criminal" offenders under the color of law. In essence, the Bandit Law was a tool of repression and a legal excuse to execute prisoners while keeping up the appearance of maintaining law and order, but it is still being widely applied. The law has been denounced as more suited to Taiwan's tough authoritarian past than the Liberal democracy fostered by the lifting of martial law in 1987. Executions have been used increasingly in recent years.