China Is Number One in the World…at Executing People
Capital punishment is a pretty touchy subject. To this day, especially in the U.S., the death penalty is endlessly debated, discussed, and analyzed. The decision to punish someone by ending his or her life will always be fraught with political, ethical, and legal implications. So you’d think that with this never-ending back and forth — complete with protests and heated rhetoric — there'd be a reduction in the number of executions, right? No such luck; the number of people put to death around the world in 2013 rose by more than 14 percent. And the country responsible for this upswing in executions is unlikely to stop any time soon.
According to Amnesty International, China now officially holds the dubious title of leading the world in executions, far outstripping every other country. The international human rights group estimates that thousands of people are killed each year by the Chinese government. But estimate is all they can do; China considers the number of people put to death to be a closely-guarded state secret, and are reluctant to share the figures with anyone else. The Human Rights Watch estimates that China executed anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people in 2012 — hardly a comforting number.
The rest of the world considerably lagged behind in state-sponsored deaths. While China’s number is in the thousands, the total elsewhere reached 778 deaths, a significant increase from 682 in 2012. Iran came in second, with approximately 369 people executed. The United States, which ranked fifth on the list of most people put to death, actually dropped from 43 executions performed the year before to 39.
And while most countries are working on reducing the number of people put to death, China remains aggressively defiant about this form of punishment. Officials were quick to dismiss Amnesty International’s report, claiming that the organization has a long history of demonizing China’s methods (although they did not offer any data that would counter the human rights groups’ findings). China indicated no interest in curbing its use of the death penalty, insisting that the ends justify the means.
“Whether or not a country retains the death penalty is mainly based on the traditional culture and specific national conditions,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in an official statement regarding Amnesty International’s findings. “It meets the aspirations of the Chinese public and will also help crack down on and prevent severe criminal activities.”
Despite this hardline attitude towards the death penalty regardless of public opinion, these new statistics actually show a decline in China’s propensity towards execution. The desire to punish criminals in the most final way possible reached a fever pitch in the 1980s and 1990s, when the need to control the growing tide of social upheaval became dire. Human Rights Watch estimates that some 10,000 people were executed annually during that time. Since then, China has made a few concessions towards reforming the death penalty — every death sentence now has to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, and the number of offenses punishable by death has dropped significantly.
So while China may seem open to reforming the administration of its death penalty policy, it also seems set on remaining the uncontested and dubious champion when it comes to putting people to death. When it comes to state-sponsored executions, being number one is a bitter victory indeed.
[Pic via Flickr - miss_millions]
