04 December 2023 :

China has executed two Filipinos for drug trafficking despite high-level Philippine government appeals to commute their death sentences to life in prison, the Philippine government said December 2, 2023.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not identify the two Filipinos, citing the wishes of their families for privacy. It added that it did not announce the Nov. 24 executions until the Philippine government was formally notified by China.
No other details were immediately given by Chinese or Philippine authorities about the executions and the drug trafficking cases.
The DFA said that from the time the two Filipinos were arrested in 2013 until their 2016 convictions by a lower Chinese court, it provided all possible help, including funding for their legal defense.
“The government of the Republic of the Philippines further exhausted all measures available to appeal to the relevant authorities of the People’s Republic of China to commute their sentences to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds,” the DFA said. “There were also high-level political representations in this regard.
"The Chinese government, citing their internal laws, upheld the conviction and the Philippines must respect China’s criminal laws and legal processes,” the DFA said.
"While the Philippine government will continue to exhaust all possible avenues to assist our overseas nationals, ultimately it is the laws and sovereign decisions of foreign countries, and not the Philippines, which will prevail in these cases.”
The executions came at a difficult point in the relations of China and the Philippines due to escalating territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The Philippines, through the DFA, has filed more than 100 diplomatic protests over aggressive actions by China in the disputed waters since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took power in June last year.
The DFA said that while it was saddened by the executions of the Filipinos, their deaths strengthen “the government’s resolve to continue our relentless efforts to rid the country of drug syndicates that prey on the vulnerable, including those seeking better lives for themselves and their families."
It renewed a reminder to Filipinos traveling abroad to be vigilant against drug syndicates, which recruit travelers to serve as “drug mules” or couriers, and to refuse to carry any uninspected package from other people.
Two other death penalty cases involving Filipinos are on appeal and under final review in China, DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza said, without elaborating.

06 August 2023 :

China on August 4, 2023 executed a South Korean man who was sentenced to death for selling a large amount of drugs, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.
It's the first time in nine years since 2014 that China has enforced capital punishment on a South Korean inmate.
The ministry expressed regret over the execution, acknowledging that Beijing notified Seoul in advance through diplomatic channels. The ministry added that it had requested several times for China to reconsider or stay the execution on humanitarian grounds.
The man was convicted on charges of trying to sell five kilograms of methamphetamine in China.
Under Chinese law, smuggling, sale, transport or production of over 50 grams of meth or heroin or over one kilogram of opium carries the death penalty, life in prison or over 15 years behind bars.

14 November 2023 :

Sun Deshun, former president of China CITIC Bank, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on November 10, 2023 for accepting bribes.
The sentence was handed down to Sun by the Intermediate People's Court of Jinan City in Shandong Province, east China.
The court found that between 2003 and 2019, Sun took advantage of his positions at various financial institutions to provide assistance to enterprises in obtaining loans, and in return he illegally accepted money and valuables worth 979.5 million yuan (about 136.5 million U.S. dollars).
Sun has been deprived of his political rights for life and his personal property have been confiscated, according to the court verdict.
After the two-year reprieve, Sun's death sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment in accordance with the law, but no further reduction or parole will be granted, the court said.

03 August 2023 :

Zhou Jiangyong, former Party chief of Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, was sentenced on July 25, 2023 to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery.
He was deprived of political rights for life and all his personal property was confiscated, as he illegally accepted more than 182 million yuan ($25.49 million) directly or through his family members. 
All proceeds from Zhou's bribery and their respective profits were ordered to be recovered in accordance with the law and handed over to the state treasury, according to the Intermediate People's Court of Chuzhou in East China's Anhui Province. 
Upon trial, it was found that from 2001 to 2021, Zhou, using his positions such as deputy county head of Yinzhou County in East China's Zhejiang, county head and Party secretary of Xiangshan, member of the Standing Committee of Ningbo Party Committee, mayor of Zhoushan, member of the Standing Committee of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, member of the Standing Committee of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, and Secretary of Hangzhou Party Committee, provided assistance to relevant units and individuals in project construction, contract awarding, land acquisition, and case handling. He directly or indirectly received illicit gains amounting to over 182 million yuan.
Zhou was put under both disciplinary and supervisory investigations by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission in August 2021, and was expelled from the Party and public office for violating laws and disciplines in January 2022.
The court held that Zhou Jiangyong's actions constituted the crime of accepting bribes. Zhou's bribery involved an extraordinarily large amount, causing particularly significant losses to the national and public interest, which according to law, should be severely punished.
Considering that Zhou confessed to his crimes after being captured, voluntarily admitted to parts of his bribery crimes unknown to the supervisory authority, expressed regret for his crimes, proactively returned the illicit gains, and all the illicit money and goods have been fully recovered, there were statutory and discretionary mitigating circumstances. The court, therefore, handed down the aforementioned sentence.

20 December 2023 :

Lao Rongzhi, a woman in the spotlight for her involvement in multiple killings, was executed on December 18, 2023 after China's top court approved her death sentence.
Lao was convicted of intentional homicide, robbery and kidnapping and was given the death penalty by the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court in Jiangxi province in September 2021.
The convictions and penalty were upheld by the Jiangxi High People's Court in November 2022.
In China, a death sentence made by lower courts should be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for review, and only when the top court approves can the sentence be executed.
A statement posted by the intermediate court said that it finished the execution on Monday morning after receiving the top court's approval, adding that the 49-year-old Lao was given the right to meet her family members before the execution.
The top court said with Lao's approval that she, a native of Jiangxi who used to be a primary school teacher, worked with her ex-boyfriend Fa Ziying to commit the robberies, kidnappings and killings in provinces of Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui from 1996 to 1999. Lao was responsible for picking targets at entertainment venues and Fa for attacking them. Their actions caused seven deaths.
Fa, also a native of Jiangxi, was caught in 1999 and sentenced to death. He was executed later that year.
Lao then became a fugitive and used false identities to evade capture until she was caught in November 2019 in Fujian province.
The top court said that Lao's behaviors have constituted the crimes of intentional killing, robbery and kidnapping, clarifying that she played a crucial role in the crimes and should be punished as a principal offender.
It also revealed that the amount of money Lao and Fa robbed and extorted was more than 100,000 yuan ($14,026).
"The circumstances of Lao's crimes were particularly serious, and the criminal methods she did were extremely cruel," the top court said. "With deep subjective malice, she posed great personal and social danger, bringing extremely severe consequences."
It noted that the original ruling was made based on sufficient evidence, with accurate application of laws and correct legal procedures, adding that the death sentence to Lao was also reasonable.

05 December 2023 :

A middle school teacher in Longhui county, Hunan province, has been executed for raping and molesting multiple students, according to a local court.
After being approved by the Supreme People's Court, the Shaoyang Intermediate People's Court executed Long Peizhu, 60, on December 1st, 2023.
The court said Long had raped five female students, aged between 12 and 14, repeatedly from April 2016 to October 2020 while serving as the head teacher of the students. Three of them were under the age of 14.
The rapes occurred in his office, the school dormitory and at Long's home.
All of the students who were raped by Long have experienced mental health issues as a result. One even took her own life.
Long had also molested three students aged between 12 and 14.
According to China's Criminal Law, people convicted of rape can be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, life in prison or even death. Those who rape girls under the age of 14 receive harsher sentences.
The court said Long's case was extremely severe, violating the bottom line of the law and morality, and causing serious negative social impact.
The Shaoyang court sentenced him to death, which was then upheld by the Hunan Provincial High People's Court and approved by the Supreme People's Court.
The court said that protecting the rights of children has been its long-held principle and it will continue to take swift action.
According to the country's top court, three courts in Hubei, Shandong and Henan provinces executed three men for raping children in May.
Zhou Guangquan, dean of the School of Law at Tsinghua University, said what Long did was so outrageous that the punishment fitted the crime.
The Criminal Law stipulates that people who commit extremely serious crimes can be sentenced to death, and carrying out the death sentence has shown the Party and country's resolution in punishing people who have seriously harmed the rights and interests of children and women, he told China Women's News.

13 November 2023 :

A former principal of a primary school in Gansu province was executed through lethal injection on November 7, 2023 following a death penalty sentence for rape and sexually molesting minors.
Jiupai News, a Hubei province-based news portal, reported on November 12 that Zhang Longji, the former principal, was sentenced to death for raping five girls aged 8 to 12 and sexually molesting 17 girls aged 8 to 14. These crimes occurred during his tenure as a director of teaching and discipline and later as principal in a local primary school in Jingning county, Gansu province.
The Pingliang Intermediate People's Court, after due legal process, found Zhang guilty of rape, imposing the death penalty along with lifelong deprivation of political rights. He was also convicted of child molestation, receiving an additional 10-year prison sentence. The court decided to enforce the death penalty and lifelong deprivation of political rights due to the severity of the crimes.
Despite Zhang's appeal against the court's decision, the High People's Court of Gansu rejected it, upholding the death sentence. The Supreme People's Court later approved the decision, leading to the execution on November 7.
Local education authorities have initiated assistance and support for the affected students, although specific details remain confidential due to the involvement of minors. The affected school has been dissolved and merged with another, as reported by Redstar News, a Sichuan province-based news portal.

30 October 2023 :

Hou Xiaofei, the man who went on a stabbing spree and injured 15 people in a hospital in Shanghai last summer, was sentenced to death by the Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court on October 27, 2023.
Hou had on July 9, 2023 traveled to Ruijin Hospital with a black backpack containing a single-edged knife, a folding knife, and a window breaker. He then stabbed patients and their family members as well as medical workers, causing serious injuries to six individuals, including four minors, and minor injuries to nine others.
He was later subdued by police officers.
The court said Hou performed the act as he was resentful of society following a failed investment, and that his murderous intent was obvious and the consequences serious.
More than 20 people, including relatives of the victims, relatives of the defendant, deputies to the municipal legislature, members of the municipal political advisory body, and members of the public, were present when the verdict was passed.

21 September 2023 :

Yu Huaying, a woman who abducted and trafficked 11 children in the 1990s for financial gain, was sentenced to death by a court in Guizhou province on September 18, 2023.
Yu, a native of Yunan province, was found to have sought illicit benefits by abducting and trafficking the children from Chongqing and Guizhou to Hebei province between 1993 and 1996. Yu's behavior constituted the crime of child abduction, said the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court.
The court said that Yu carried out the abductions with a man surnamed Gong, who died during the course of the case. Two other people, surnamed Wang and Yang who participated in the abductions, have been dealt with in separate cases, the court added.
Considering the large number of children Yu abducted and the fact that her offenses were extremely serious and had a great negative effect on society, the court said that it decided to impose the death penalty on her.
It also stripped Yu of her political rights for life and ordered that all her personal assets be confiscated.
Yu said she will appeal the decision to a higher court.
The case aroused public attention in June 2022 after police in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, received a report from a woman who had been abducted 27 years earlier.
Yang Niuhua, 33, was snatched by Yu in Guizhou and taken to Hebei in 1995 for the sum of 3,500 yuan ($480).
Over the years, Yang, a native of Guiyang, never stopped searching for her family. In April 2021, thanks to a video she posted on the video-sharing platform via Douyin, she had a successful DNA match and reunited with her family a month later.
In June 2022, after she returned to her hometown, Yang went to Guiyang police to provide clues about her abduction. Yu was soon captured in Chongqing.
She was prosecuted in February and the court heard her case in July.
In 2000, Yu was arrested by police in Handan, Hebei, and served a two-month detention in relation to child abduction offenses, according to ThePaper, a Shanghai-based news outlet.
In 2004, she was captured by authorities again for abducting children in Yunnan. At that time, she was using a fake identity. She was sentenced under the false ID to eight years in prison for child abduction, it said.
While serving the prison term, her sentence was reduced by three years. After her release she was jobless, ThePaper reported.

17 July 2023 :

A kindergarten teacher found to have poisoned 25 of her students, killing one, has been executed, according to a court in central China.
Wang Yun’s sentence was carried out July 13, 2023, according to a notice posted outside the No. 1 Intermediate Court in the city of Jiaozuo in the Henan province.
The 40-year-old was found guilty of lacing her students' porridge with toxic sodium nitrite while working at the Mengmeng Pre-school Education on March 27, 2019.
The incident occurred after she had a disagreement with a colleague over "student management."
While the majority of the students recovered, one succumbed to the toxic poisoning after suffering from multiple-organ failure despite 10 months of treatment. 
Wang apparently also poisoned her husband with the same substance prior to the March 2019 event at the pre-school, though he too survived with mild injuries. 
The 40-year-old was said to be acting out of revenge in both poisoning cases, according to the court notice. 
Wang was originally sentenced to nine months in prison for causing deliberate harm. Her sentence was later converted to the death penalty despite her appeal.
It is unclear how she was executed, though Wang was reportedly taken to an execution ground before her sentence was conducted. Most death sentences in China are reportedly carried with a bullet to the back of the head, although there have been some instances of lethal injection.
China is believed to carry out more death penalties than the rest of the world combined, though the exact number of state killings each year remains a government secret. 
Attacks in schools have become an increasing trend across China, largely carried out by individuals bearing a grudge on certain people or society and are said to be "mentally disturbed" persons. 
Gun ownership is illegal in China and most of these attacks have been carried out with the use of knives.

02 July 2023 :

A man who killed his wife and then attempted to hide her body in a freezer in Shanghai was sentenced to death on June 29, 2023.
Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court, which heard the case on April 12, announced the sentence for the man, surnamed Gao.
Gao, who was found guilty of intentional homicide, didn't say whether he would appeal the sentence.
According to a copy of the procuratorate's indictment, at 8 am on March 2 last year, Gao stabbed his wife repeatedly in the neck with a fruit knife, resulting in her death.
Gao placed an order to buy a freezer after the killing and posed as his wife in messages he sent to her family members and colleagues, the court said.
A day after receiving the freezer, he tried to hide her body in it but was unable to put her in, according to the court.
He then contacted the police, claiming that his wife had taken her own life. He confessed to the police shortly after they began their investigation.
According to the family of the victim, she was a native of Shanghai and married Gao in 2015.
In 2019, the family learned that Gao had become addicted to buying stocks and borrowed money to fuel his habit. His addiction led him to incur massive debts, leading him to sell his house and borrow money from a number of lending platforms. His wife also borrowed money from her relatives to help pay his debts, the family said.
In previous reports, the family speculated that the tremendous financial pressure Gao was under may have contributed to him killing his wife.

29 June 2023 :

Guangdong High People's Court upheld a ruling by a lower court that sentenced Wen Qingyun to death for endangering public security with dangerous methods in a final judgment on June 28, 2023.
The court ruled to dismiss Wen's appeal and upheld the original judgment, as Wen's criminal methods are extremely cruel with extremely serious consequences, subjective malignancy and great social harm.
Wen, 22, should be severely punished according to law, Guangdong High People's Court said in its verdict.
Meanwhile the original judgment has determined the facts clearly, the evidence is accurate and sufficient, the conviction is accurate, the sentencing is appropriate and the trial procedure is legal, said the verdict.
More than 100 people, including some victims and their family members, litigation representatives, appellant families, deputies of local National People's Congress and members of local Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the rest from all walks of life, attended the public hearing.
Earlier this year, Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Wen to death and deprived of his political rights for life for endangering public security with dangerous methods during its first instance of trial.
Wen appealed after the verdict was passed.
The incident in question took place in Guangzhou's busy Tianhe district on the afternoon of Jan 11 when Wen rammed into crowded pedestrians and road facilities with his car, causing serious consequences — multiple deaths, injuries and property losses. Wen was later brought under control by police.

31 May 2023 :

The death sentence handed down to a former Peking University student who killed his mother was upheld by the Fujian High People's Court on May 31, 2023.
The high court heard Wu Xieyu's appeal on May 19, more than 20 months after he was convicted of intentional homicide, fraud and the illegal purchase of identity cards.
The 28-year-old was given the death penalty and fined 103,000 yuan ($14,600) by the Intermediate People's Court in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province.
According to the original ruling, Wu thought the life of his 48-year-old mother, Xie Tianqin, was meaningless after his father died of an illness, so he prepared to kill her in early 2015 and bought items online for this purpose.
On July 10 that year, when Xie arrived home, Wu hit her repeatedly in the head and face with a dumbbell, resulting in her death. He fled the scene after wrapping her body in 75 layers, including bedsheets, plastic sheets and activated carbon bags.
To cover up the killing, Wu "borrowed" 1.44 million yuan from his relatives and friends, telling them he and his mother would need the money as she accompanied him while he traveled overseas to study. In reality, he squandered the money. To hide his identity and avoid arrest, he also purchased more than 10 ID cards.
The family became suspicious when Xie failed to contact them for an extended period of time. They found her body on Feb 14, 2016, in her faculty dormitory apartment at a middle school she worked at in Fuzhou.
Local police named Wu as a suspect and offered a reward for information leading to his arrest in March 2016. He was finally captured in Chongqing in April 2019 after being on the run for more than three years.
In December 2020, he stood trial at the intermediate court, and it handed down the death sentence against him in August 2021.

13 May 2023 :

A father in Chongqing who killed his two children by tossing them out of a high-rise apartment window in 2020 along with his girlfriend, who prompted him, were both sentenced to death on May 11, 2023.
The court dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment in the murder case of Zhang Bo and his girlfriend, Ye Chengchen. The rulings will be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval.
The lower court found that Zhang and Ye conspired to kill two toddlers, a girl and a younger boy, by staging an "accidental" fall on Nov 2, 2020. 
The court held that their motive was despicable and the means was brutal, resulting in an "extremely" bad social influence. 
The Chongqing No 5 Intermediate People's Court handed down the death penalty in its original judgment in December 2021. Both defendants appealed the ruling after the first trial. 
On April 6 this year, the second trial for Zhang and Ye began at the Chongqing Higher People's Court. 
According to the mother of the slain children, Zhang wrote four letters to her from prison expressing his remorse and asking for forgiveness. She wrote in her reply that "the most sincere redemption is to accept the verdict and die".
The case sparked outrage online and has drawn intense public attention in China, with many infuriated netizens calling for the death penalty without reprieve.

23 April 2023 :

A driver who killed five and injured 13 others by ploughing his car into pedestrians in China in January has been sentenced to death, a Guangzhou court said on April 18, 2023.
Wen Qingyun, 22, was judged to have endangered public safety by intentionally driving his car into pedestrians crossing a junction and public property at around 5pm on Jan 11.
The accident occurred in Guangzhou’s Tianhe District at an intersection of Wanlinghui Plaza and Zhengjia Plaza during the evening peak hour in one of the city’s busier roads.
Surveillance camera videos show the Guangdong native driving his BMW SUV into a crowd of people at a zebra crossing.
A man can be heard yelling from the car as it is readjusted. It then speeds up and rams into a fence by the road and repeatedly crushes roadside barriers. The car is also seen nearly reversing into a traffic official wearing a reflective vest.
The front of Wen’s car appears damaged, with its headlights destroyed and the bonnet heavily dented.
Other videos circulated on social media show Wen standing next to his car throwing wads of cash into the air. As the authorities approached him, Wen attempts to flee on foot but is stopped and arrested.
Images circulated in January on social media show dozens of people lying on the road and pavement, their belongings strewn on the ground. Some are seen calling for help.
The court session was presided by a panel that included three judges and attended by around 60 people, Shanghai-based Pengpai News reported.
Wen appeared calm as his sentence was read out without visible emotional reactions, a victim’s family member present said, adding that he did not explain or apologise for his actions, only muttering “hou hui”, or regret in Chinese.

21 March 2023 :

Xu Guoli, who killed his wife in 2020, was executed on 21 March 2023 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, after the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court approved his death sentence, which was handed down in July 2021.
The court turned down Xu's appeal. He had confessed in court that he killed his sleeping wife on July 5, 2020, because of "family conflicts".
The death penalty verdict was submitted to the Supreme People's Court for re-examination and approval.
The verdict said that Xu was "extremely vicious and ruthless" in the premeditated homicide and had fabricated false information to cover up his crime, which was extremely harmful to society.
Late on July 4, 2020, Xu put sleeping pills in his wife's milk and later smothered her with a pillow. He then dismembered her body and discarded the remains around the residential community where the couple lived.
According to the Hangzhou court, Xu was allowed to meet his relatives before he was executed.

21 July 2023 :

(July 21, 2023) - Today, July 21, the demonstration of the Falun Gong spiritual movement organized by the Falun Dafa association took place in Rome, next to the embassy of the People's Republic of China. Hands Off Cain supports all adherents of the Buddhist-derived spiritual practice of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa, an absolutely non-violent movement persecuted by the Chinese Communist dictatorship. Hands off Cain, a friend of Falun Gong for years, greatly appreciates their motto: "compassion, tolerance, truth". China violates inalienable and fundamental human rights. Freedom for Falung Gong. No to the death penalty.