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Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China is usually administered to offenders of serious and violent crimes, such as aggravated murder, but China retains in law a number of nonviolent capital offenses such as drug trafficking. The People's Republic of China executes the highest number of people annually, though other countries (such as Iran or Singapore) have higher per capita execution rates. Watchdog groups believe that actual execution numbers greatly exceed officially recorded executions; in 2008, 2009, and 2010, the Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 5,000 people were executed each year in China – far more than all other nations combined. 〔〔:zh:中华人民共和国死刑犯列表〕 〔('Reducing Death Penalty Crimes in China More Symbol Than Substance' ), Dialogue, Issue 40, Fall 2010.〕 However, the estimated number of executions fell to 2,400 in 2013. The precise number of executions is regarded as a state secret. Since the formation of the People's Republic of China in the 1940s, there have also been foreigners executed in China, including people from Western nations. All classes of society in China have been executed, there have been no exceptions. Recently, a billionaire in China was executed for running a criminal gang.〔http://www.smh.com.au/world/chinese-billionaire-mining-tycoon-liu-han-is-executed-over-his-links-to-a-mafiastyle-gang-20150209-139w2z.html〕 PRC authorities have recently been pursuing measures to reduce the official number of crimes punishable by death, and limit how often the death penalty is officially utilized. In 2011, the National People's Congress Standing Committee adopted an amendment to reduce the number of capital crimes from 68 to 55.〔(news.xinhuanet.com Capital crimes dropped )- Retrieved 2012-04-06〕 Later the same year, the Supreme People's Court ordered lower courts to suspend death sentences for two years and to "ensure that it only applies to a very small minority of criminals committing extremely serious crimes. In practice, China traditionally uses the firing squad as its standard method of execution. However in recent years, China has adopted lethal injection as its sole method of execution, though execution by firing squad can still be administered. ”〔International Business Times, ('China suspends executions for two years' ), 25 May 2011.〕 Capital punishment is one of the classical Five Punishments of China's dynastic period. In Chinese philosophy, capital punishment was supported by the Legalists but its application was tempered by the Confucianists, who preferred rehabilitation over punishment, let alone capital punishment. In Communist philosophy, Vladimir Lenin advocated the retention of the death penalty, while Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels claimed that the practice was "feudal" and a symbol of "capitalist oppression". Chairman Mao Zedong of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and his government somewhat glorified, to an extent, the death penalty's transient place in the legal system, while advocating that it be used for a limited number of counterrevolutionaries. The market reformer Deng Xiaoping after him stressed that the practice must not be abolished, and advocated its wider use against recidivists and corrupt officials. Leaders of China's minor, non-communist parties have also advocated for a wider use of the death penalty. Both Deng and Mao viewed the death penalty as having tremendous popular support, and portrayed the practice as a means "to assuage the people's anger". Capital punishment has widespread support in China, especially for violent crimes, and no group in government or civil society vocally advocates for its abolition. Surveys conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1995, for instance, found that 95 percent of the Chinese population supported the death penalty, and these results were mirrored in other studies. Polling conducted in 2007 in Beijing, Hunan and Guangdong found a more moderate 58 percent in favor of the death penalty, and further found that a majority (63.8 percent) believed that the government should release execution statistics to the public.〔Dui Hua Foundation, ('Reducing Death Penalty Crimes in China More Symbol Than Substance' ), Dialogue, Issue 40, Fall 2010.〕 During the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee it was announced that China will reduce the number of crimes subject to death penalty "step by step".〔(China to reduce capital punishment 'step by step' )〕 ==Legal procedure== After a first trial conducted by an intermediate people's court concludes with a death sentence, a double appeals process must follow. The first appeal is conducted by a high people's court if the condemned appealed to it, and since 2007, another appeal is conducted automatically (even if the condemned oppose the first appeal) by the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC) in Beijing, to prevent the awkward circumstances in which the defendant is proved innocent ''after'' the death penalty - an obviously irrevocable punishment - has been administered. When a case involving the death penalty is sent to the SPC for mandatory review, the case is delivered to one of the court’s five divisions according to the geographic origin of the case or, in some cases, the type of crime involved. The SPC's second criminal division is dedicated to handling review of some of the most sensitive cases. Each case is then assigned to a panel of three judges, one of whom is designated as the principal case manager. Since 2012, judges are also required to interview defendants before deciding whether or not to confirm a death sentence. The judges write reports summarizing the case, discuss the case, and then report the decision to the division head, SPC vice president, and finally the SPC president. If the lower court death sentence is upheld, the execution is carried out shortly thereafter and is fairly automated. As a result of its reforms, the PRC's government claims, the Supreme People's Court overturned about 15 percent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first half of 2008. In a brief report in May, Xinhua quoted anonymous sources as saying Chinese courts handed down 30 percent fewer death sentences in 2007 compared with 2006.〔 The cases of Li Yan (2014) and Wu Ying (2012) are two examples in which the Supreme People's Court reversed a death sentence pronounced by lower courts. Chinese courts hand down the sentence of "death sentence with two years' probation" () as frequently as, or more often than,〔 they do actual death sentences. This unique sentence is used to emphasize the seriousness of the crime and the mercy of the court, and has a centuries-old history in Chinese jurisprudence.〔 It almost always reduced to life or 10–15 years imprisonment if no new crime is intentionally committed during the two year probationary period.〔 Article 49 in the Chinese criminal code explicitly forbids the death penalty for offenders who are under the age of 18 at the time of the crime. The SPC also issued a policy in 2007 which required lower courts to arrange for the visitation of condemned criminals by relatives; forbade the practice by local authorities of parading prisoners on death row; and required that executions be publicly announced.〔 However, capital punishment in China can be politically or socially influenced. In 2003, a local court sentenced the leader of a triad society to a death sentence with two years of probation. However, the public opinion was that the sentence was too light. Under public pressure, the Supreme People's Court took the case and retried the leader, resulting in a death sentence which was carried out immediately. Since 1980, the state's security apparatus has initiated various "strike hard" () campaigns against specific types of crime. Critics have noted that the campaigns lead to the streamlining of capital cases, where cases are investigated, appeals heard, and sentences carried out at rates much more rapidly than normal. Since 2006, Chinese Supreme Court justice Xiao Yang has worked to blunt the "strike hard" policy with his own policy of "balancing leniency and severity" (), which is supposedly influenced by Hu Jintao's Harmonious society concept. Xiao's policy includes improving the quality of appeals by mandating that the SPC, rather than simply the high people's court, review capital crime cases; increasing use of the "death sentence with two years' probation"; and requiring "clear facts" and "abundant evidence" for capital cases.〔 The abolition of the death penalty in Hong Kong since 1993 is a major reason why mainland China does not have a rendition agreement with that city. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Capital punishment in China」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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