Conditions not ripe for China to abolish death penalty: spokesman
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-03-12 09:13

China, for the moment, does not have the right conditions for abolishing capital punishment, said spokesman Sun Huapu of the Supreme People's Court at Saturday's on-line meeting with visitors of two top Chinese websites.

In reply to netizens surfing the Xinhuanet.com and the GOV.cn, which is the website of the Chinese central government, the spokesman made it clear that China is among the more than half of the nations in the world that have insisted on the death penalty, which has drawn criticism from others. It is a global trend that the controversial practice will be gradually reduced until it is abolished in the whole world, he said.

Sun attributed China's preservation of the system to its level of development as the country is still in its initial stage of socialism and a developing country, featuring a low level of civilization in which the public still believes in the principle that "a killer should pay the victim with his life".

But the country has exerted strict control over the death penalty, ensuring that only a very small number of criminals committing extremely severe crimes be executed, said the official.

In China, capital punishment falls into two categories -- a death penalty with the criminal to be executed immediately after the sentencing, and death with a two-year probation.

The supreme court is busy preparing for the practice of unifying the three aspects of approval for death sentences: ideology, organization, and material and equipment. It will open three more criminal tribunals, with judges coming from across the country.

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