CONTI ELNTIAL
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE FEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
1.
ANNEX C
Information on carital punishment in China is rather scanty and is largely based on reports of executions which have been received fairly frequently over the past few years from various places in China, principally from the cities of Feking and Shanghai. Most of these reports are based on notices displayed by the local judicial authorities in public places, where they have been observed by diplomats and others. It is the usual practice to publicise. various cases of criminal proceedings in this way, rather than through the press and radio. It is not possible to make a useful estimate of statistics for crime and punishment, but it seems likely that many announcements of this kind never come to the attention of foreign observers.
2. Crimes for which the death penalty has been imposed in recent years include:
murder, rape, sabotage, "counter revolutionary activities" (including espionage), profiteering and assault on foreign diplomatic personnel. The imposition of the death penalty for certain serious political and economic offences is in accordance with laws enacted in 1950-51 to deal with "counter-revolutionary activities","undermining the State military system" and corruption.
The
3. All cases involving a death sentence must either be decided or be confirmed by the Supreme People's Court in Feking. death penalty is not applicable to pregnant women or juveniles. According to legal officials in Kwangtung (in conversation with the"Die Welt" correspondent, Gerd Ruger, in hay 1974) the death penalty is seldom used in Cina and then only when the criminal has committed a really heinous crime which aroused the anger of the masses. If the anger of the masses could not be appeased, then the death sentence would be commuted for two years and the man would be imprisoned. If during that time the man behaved in an exemplary
CONFIDENTIAL
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