09 December 2005 :

China will make court proceedings on death penalty appeals open to the public next year in a bid to safeguard human rights, the government said. As of January 1 appeals of death sentence cases involving "major controversy" will be open to the public, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing a notice from the Supreme Court. It didn't give further details.
As of July 1 next year, all death sentence appeals will be heard in open court, Xinhua said. The new regulation was aimed at "improving human rights protection," and preventing wrongful convictions.
Current regulations allow such cases to be heard in public but they rarely are, Xinhua said.