Capital offences in the People's Republic of China

In the People's Republic of China there are 55^[1] criminal offences that are eligible for the death penalty. Many of these offences are non-violent and economic criminal offences. The following are just a few of them.

Crimes of Endangering Public Security

• 1. Committing arson, breaching a dike, causing explosion, spreading poison or inflicting serious injury or death on people or causes heavy losses of public or private property by other dangerous means.
• 2. Sabotaging any means of transport, transportation facility, electric power facility, gas facility, or inflammable or explosive equipment, thereby causing serious consequences
• 3. Any hijacker who causes serious injury to or death of any other person or serious damage to aircraft
• 4. Illegally manufacturing, trading, transporting, mailing or storing any guns, ammunition or explosives in serious circumstances.
• 5. Stealing or forcibly seizing any guns, ammunition or explosives in serious circumstances.
• 6. Robbery of any guns, ammunition or explosives or stealing or forcibly seizing any guns, ammunition or explosives from State organs, members of the armed forces, the police or the people's militia
• 7. Producing or selling fake medicines that cause death especially if serious harm is done to human health.
• 8. Whoever mixes the foods that he produces or sells with toxic or harmful non-food raw materials or knowingly sells such foods that cause death or especially serious harm.

Crimes of Smuggling

• 9. Smuggling drugs, weapons, ammunition, nuclear materials or counterfeit currency if circumstances are serious.

Crimes of Disrupting the Order of Financial Administration

• 11. Whoever counterfeits currencies and
  • a. being a ringleader of a gang engaged in counterfeiting currencies;
  • b. having counterfeited currencies in especially huge, amounts; or
  • c. being involved in other especially serious circumstances.

Crimes of Infringing Upon Citizens' Right of the Person and Democratic Rights.

• 17. Intentionally commits homicide

• 18. Intentionally inflicting injury upon another person AND if he/she causes death to the person or, by resorting to especially cruel means, causes severe injury to the person, reducing the person to utter disability

• 19. Raping a woman or has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 14 in any of the following circumstances:
  • (1) the circumstances being flagrant;
  • (2) raping a number of women or girls under the age of 14;
  • (3) raping a woman before the public in a public place;
  • (4) raping a woman with one or more persons in succession; or
  • (5) causing serious injury or death to the victim or any other serious consequences.
• 20. Unlawfully detaining another person or unlawfully deprives the personal freedom of another person by any other means AND if he causes injury, disability or death to the victim by violence.
• 21. Unlawfully detaining or confines another person in order to get payment of a debt does the same in (20)
• 22. Where a functionary of a State organ commits any of the crimes mentioned in (20).
• 23. Kidnapping another person for the purpose of extorting money or property or kidnaps another person as a hostage AND Whoever kidnaps another person for the purpose of extorting money or property or kidnaps another person as a hostage.
• 24. Abducting and trafficking in a woman or child AND if the circumstances are especially serious beyond the following:
  • (1) being a ringleader of a gang engaged in abducting and trafficking in women and children;
  • (2) abducting and trafficking in three or more women and/or children;
  • (3) raping the woman who is abducted and trafficked in;
  • (4) enticing or forcing the woman who is abducted and trafficked in to engage in prostitution, or selling such woman to any other person who would force her to engage in prostitution;
  • (5) kidnapping a woman or child by means of violence, coercion or anaesthesia for the purpose of selling the victim;
  • (6) stealing a baby or an infant for the purpose of selling the victim;
  • (7) causing serious injury or death to the woman or child who is abducted and trafficked in or to her or his relatives or any other serious consequences; or
  • (8) selling a woman or a child out of the territory of China.

Other

• Illegally selling or transfers weapons or equipment of the armed forces AND if a large amount of weapons or equipment is sold or transferred or if there are other especially serious circumstances involved.
• Any serviceman who, during wartime, cruelly injures innocent residents in an area of military operation or plunders their money or property AND if the circumstances are serious.

Source

This article incorporates material from http://en.chinacourt.org/public/detail.php?id=5, a source in public domain.

References

1. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12580504

Further reading

• LU Hong (5 November 2008). "China's Death Penalty: Reforms on Capital Punishment (EAI Background Brief No. 412". East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB412.pdf.