China to Further Cut Crimes Subject to Death Penalty
The Dui Hua Foundation came out with its annual estimate of China’s capital punishment numbers last week and once again the country topped the world, executing more people (2,400) than the rest of the world combined (778). (China does not publish death penalty figures.)
What is less known, however, is that it constitutes a fraction of that projected over a decade ago – 12,000 in 2002 and rates have been steadily but dramatically falling over the years. “…(China) has executed far fewer people since the power of final review of death sentences was returned to the (Supreme People’s Court) in 2007”, the US-based rights group stated. Just the same, other researchers warn that approximations by rights groups may be prone to “exaggeration and hyperbole”.
Yesterday, the Xinhua News Agency reported that a draft amendment to China’s criminal law proposing a further reduction of nine crimes subject to the death penalty was sent for initial review by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. Of the nine, five pertained to economic crimes including weapons and ammunition smuggling, smuggling of nuclear materials, counterfeiting, smuggling of fake banknotes, and fund raising through fraud. Other crimes covered organizing and forcing prostitution, obstruction of military duties, and rumour mongering during war-time. The vast majority of those convicted of crimes under these categories would be commuted to life imprisonment instead.
Only those found to have “gravely” violated the law during a reprieve period after initial sentencing could be executed following a Supreme People’s Court (SPC) review. Under current laws, those sentenced to death can be executed after a review regardless of whether they’ve gravely violated the law or not. Occasionally, there have been cases where people who were wrongfully executed were exonerated after others came forward to confess their crimes or when the supposed murder victim turned up alive. Last June, the SPC overturned the death sentence of Ms Li Yan, a woman who had killed her abusive husband, setting a major precedent in Chinese judicial history.
This is the second time that China’s judicial authorities have proposed a reduction in capital crimes. The last time was in 2011 when the NPC adopted an amendment to reduce crimes subject capital punishment by 13 from 68 to 55 of the original list enacted in 1979. Later that year, the SPC also ordered lower courts to suspend death sentences for two years and “ensure that (they) only apply to a very small minority of criminals committing extremely serious crimes.” The Southern Weekly newspaper reported that China’s top court had sent back 39% of death sentences meted out by lower courts in 2013 for additional evidence.
In contrast to many Western countries, capital punishment has widespread support in China, particularly for egregious non-political violent crimes, such as the recent sentencing of ‘All Mighty God’ cult members who beat an innocent customer to death at a McDonald’s restaurant in Zhaoyuan, Shandong and for the rash of mass killings perpetrated by Islamic extremist terrorists in Xinjiang and elsewhere.
Polls cited by Dui Hua and conducted in Beijing, Hunan and Guangdong in 2007 found 58% of respondents in favour of the death penalty but down substantially from the 95% in a 1995 survey carried out by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In addition, a US-based researcher points out China imposes executions primarily for their deterrent value and that publishing low execution figures would only serve to mitigate that effect.
Interviewed by the China Daily, Li Shishi, director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee which will deliberate the bill at its bi-monthly session this week, said the positive impact of the 2011 reductions paved the way for the additional cut proposals. The draft amendment is part and parcel of the reform blueprint introduced last November that declared China would reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty “step by step”. Chinese criminal law experts say the move is a requirement of ongoing judicial reforms designed to better protect human rights in China.
Quebec Premier: Won’t Lecture the Chinese
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, in Shanghai on a trade mission with two other Canadian premiers, said he has no intention of lecturing his Chinese hosts on ‘human rights’. Particularly intriguing is his statement at the bottom. Yes indeed, try to provide for the citizens of and govern a country 41 times the size of Canada; Beijing’s population alone is 2/3 of Canada.
On Sunday, Couillard said he was in China mostly to talk about greater “investment and collaboration.”
Couillard said it’s important to tread lightly, since China has its own unique culture and has changed a lot in recent years.
“I don’t think you need to give lessons when visiting other countries. You have to listen to the point of view of your hosts on these questions. And we must also realize the tremendous progress that has been made in China in the last 25-30 years,” he said.
“You have to see it also in the context of Chinese civilization, which is a very ancient civilization, where things are moving, but they move at their own pace.”
As well, Couillard said China could play a major role in Quebec’s economic growth.
“We need to bring in capital, we need private investment in Quebec, and there is a lot of capital available here in China and there’s interest in investing it,” he said.
Besides attracting Chinese investment, Couillard said he wants to generate interest in Quebec exports. Quebec exports to China have jumped 130 per cent since 2009 and now total $2.6 billion annually.
The Quebec delegation totals nearly 150 people, with representatives mostly from the business sector but also from educational and cultural fields.
Couillard said Quebec could learn a lot from China, especially in the context of how to combine economic development while managing such a complex country.
“We have a much less complex country… imagine here, in a country of 1.3 billion people, the challenge of ensuring harmonious development, and encouraging greater social equality.”
– Canadian Press
US Should Work With China’s AIIB: Guardian
This Guardian editorial hits the mark:
Further to a previous post, it should be emphasized that the US and its closest allies have been slow, in fact, dragging it feet, in reforming the WB, IMF and ADB. This has proved frustrating to the Chinese (and other large developing countries) so it went ahead to form the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with 20 other developing countries. Two key US allies Australia and South Korea stood on the sidelines along with Indonesia despite being invited to the founding party.
Needless to say, there remains a great need for infrastructural development in Asia. The US should not take a dim, zero-sum view of the relationship between US/EU/Japan led institutions and the AIIB. In many ways, the various development institutions can complement each other for the betterment of Asia. If the US and Japan continue to be obstinate, the AIIB will only grow in influence at the expense of multilateral financial institutions that they lead.
HK Student Protestors Were Trained By Foreigners: BBC
Here are the most relevant excerpts from the much talked about recent BBC Newsnight report on a major meeting of the Oslo Freedom Forum, which despite its name, is based in New York. At the meeting, activists disclosed that foreign-backed training of Hong Kong student protestors had been nearly 2 years in the making!
“Hong Kong protests: Activists share secrets at Oslo Freedom Forum”
While Hong Kong’s students continue their protests and stumbling negotiations with the territory’s authorities, democracy activists from around the world, who have helped organise their struggle, gather together.
‘Trained demonstrators’
…However, far from being impromptu demonstrations, it is an open secret at this meeting in Norway that plans were hatched for the demonstrations nearly two years ago.
The ideas was to use non-violent action as a “weapon of mass destruction” to challenge the Chinese government.
Organisers prepared a plan to persuade 10,000 people on to the streets, to occupy roads in central Hong Kong, back in January 2013.
They believed that China’s moves to control the Hong Kong election would provide a flashpoint where civil disobedience could be effective, and planned accordingly.
Their strategies were not just to plan the timing and nature of the demonstrations, but also how they would be run.
BBC Newsnight has been told many of those involved in the demonstrations, perhaps more than 1,000 of them, have been given specific training to help make the campaign as effective as possible.
‘New world race’
Jianili Yang, a Chinese academic, was part of the violent protests in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago. He has been advising the Hong Kong demonstrators on an almost hourly basis.
He says that the students are better organised than the Tiananmen protesters ever were, with clearer, more effective structures for their action and clearer goals about what they are trying to achieve.
Jamila Raqib, the executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution in New York, a human rights organisation, says: “Protesters were taught how to behave during a protest.
“How to keep ranks, how to speak to police, how to manage their own movement, how to use marshals in their movement, people who are specially trained.
“It was also how to behave when arrested – practical things like the need for food and water, movement can last longer when people are taken care of, and also how to manage a water cannon being used against you, and other types of police violence.”
Update on China’s Aid to Combat Ebola
This is China’s fourth and largest round of aid so far and there may be more coming down the pipeline. With this batch, China will have contributed over US$122 million, by far second only to the US.
Hope this shuts up those uninformed critics, Western and African!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/24/us-health-ebola-china-idUSKCN0ID1MB20141024