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High executioners

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  1. #1

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    Exclamation High executioners

    China and the death penalty: High executioners | The Economist

    High executioners

    China executes many more people than anywhere else. Changes to its laws may reduce a grim total
    Jul 28th 2010

    CHINA executes more of its own citizens than any other country, and more than all others in the world combined. “Thousands” of Chinese were executed in 2009 according to Amnesty International's annual study (The death penalty in 2009 | Amnesty International) , which states that an exact number is impossible to determine because information on the death penalty is regarded as a state secret. But this gruesome record may yet change. The National People's Congress is reported to be reducing the number of offences that are punishable by execution. Among the crimes that currently carry the death penalty are bribing an official and stealing historical relics.
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  2. #2

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    All glory to the "people's" republic.


  3. #3

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    Someone has to be #1....Why not us?


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    Quote Originally Posted by climber07:
    Someone has to be #1....Why not us?
    You're not though. If you recalibrate to deaths/1000' population, China is near the bottom, not far above the USA.....

  5. #5

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    Although you can't accurately measure the number of executions in China, so any comparison is pretty meaningless.


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    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    You're not though. If you recalibrate to deaths/1000' population, China is near the bottom, not far above the USA.....
    Party pooper....calibrate shmalibrate...

    There's no party like Communist party!!! GO CHINA!

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    Gosh, people. Why should we allow our love for the motherland to be diminished by petty drivel like annual civilian execution figures and other such human 'rights' non-events? Just move on, you didn't see anything, okay? Good.

    Focus on more important things, like economic prosperity. Glory to the motherland!


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    I am reasonbly comforable with the death penalty in theory but the question, of course, is how it is carried out. Confessions by torture, no right to a real defense, death penalty for things like drug muling and tax evasion are all very disturbing. Those issues, rather than the numbers themselves, are in my view the real cause for concern.

    Not sure how strong Moving07's math is but my calc indicates that even with the number given, the per capita death penalty rate in China is about 6 times in the US. And that is using the "1000" proxy number - the actual number is certainly far higher (3,000 or so) since the 1,000 was being used as a placeholder. That of course is because the death penalty numbers are a 'state secret' - which to me is a massive example of a government's being unclear on the concept.

    Anyway the process is more of a concern to me that the actual number.


  9. #9

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    The death penalty is barbaric and belongs in the Middle Ages. Very few first world countries partake in it and hopefully that's something China will eventually abolish and take one more step in becoming a developed nation.


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    Quote Originally Posted by gilleshk:
    The death penalty is barbaric and belongs in the Middle Ages. Very few first world countries partake in it and hopefully that's something China will eventually abolish and take one more step in becoming a developed nation.
    I agree with Gilles and nowhere in the world has the presence of the death penalty proven to be a deterrent.

    I met a prison guard in 1976 who attended at the last hanging in British Columbia. His view was that it was barbaric and also wrong to submit prison staff to the process. He also said that all those who wanted the death penalty should have to participate in the proceedings just like jury duty. Then they might see it for themselves if they had to get their hands dirty.

    I have never quite got my head around how a state murder of a human being is justice for someone who took another person's life. It is like the hippy bumper sticker in the peace movement in the 60s - Killing for peace is like f..king for virginity.

    The US has proven now that it costs more to handle the appeal processes leading up to an execution than to incarcerate that person for life.

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