China to Reduce the Number of Death Sentences

From BBC News 

Death penalty debate

 

Moving on to other news, China's National People's Congress (NPC) is planning to revise the country's criminal law to reduce the number of death sentences given by courts, according to local media reports.
Zang Tiewei, member of the NPC's committee on legislative affairs, said the legislature is studying a proposal, submitted at the ongoing parliament sessions, to restrict the death penalty to extremely serious crimes.

The Southern Metropolis Daily adds that the proposal, submitted by 36 members of the NPC, includes a suggestion to abolish the death penalty for financial crimes.

Zhu Zhengfu, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, tells the papers that the fear of capital punishment has not been able to reduce the number of illegal fundraising activities. "Death sentence alone is not enough to deter such crimes, most importantly there is a need for reform outside the sphere of punishment," he is quoted as saying.

Agreeing with the thought, experts interviewed by the Global Times say that such crimes pose "less social harm than violent crimes" but urge the authorities to improve market regulation.

However, Beijing News notes that there are differing views on the abolition as such fraudulent crimes "usually involved many people and might affect social stability".

And finally, Shen Peiping, vice-governor of south-western China's Yunnan province, is under investigation for "suspected serious violation of discipline and laws", local media reports say.