The Debate on the Abolition of Capital Punishment as Applied to Economic Crimes in China

The debate over application of the death penalty for economic crimes is complicated by political issues surrounding its use against corrupt officials. Since 2000, discussion of capital punishment has no longer been taboo in China. At first limited to academic circles, it has gradually spread to political and legislative milieus. It has become an increasingly important topic of public debate thanks to the Internet and is progressively becoming the subject of an international dialogue. The first institutional consequence of this debate occured on January 1, 2007, when the Supreme Court officially recovered the power of revision in death penalty cases. This took place two years ago, when the president of the Supreme Court gave a report on this subject to the National People's Congress. A second step calls for abolishing the application of this punishment for economic crimes. There is at present a consensus on the proposal among the new generation of jurists, which is provoking objection from the general population, particularly concerning the abolition of the death penalty for cases of corruption. During recent years, there have been heated discussions on this question both in press and on the Internet. Certain jurists have also become the target of verbal attacks from netizens who accuse them of actually beoing accomplices of corrup officials. Moreover, public opinion must also be taken into account in the legislative application of this project