Capital offences in China


In Mainland China, there are 46 crimes punishable by death. These are defined in the criminal law of China, which comprehensively identifies criminal acts and their corresponding liabilities.

List of capital offenses

Crimes Endangering National Security

Endangering national security is among the crime categories included in the 1997 revision of China's criminal code. It comprises Articles 102 to 113 of the 1997 Criminal Law and imposes the confiscation of property as a supplementary penalty. The crimes included are:
  1. Treason
  2. Separatism
  3. Armed rebellion, rioting
  4. Collaborating with the enemy
  5. Spying or espionage
  6. Selling state secrets
  7. Providing material support to the enemy

Crimes Endangering Public Security

  2. Arson
  3. Flooding
  4. Manslaughter
  5. Bombing
  6. Spreading poisons
  7. Spreading hazardous substances
  8. Seriously endangering public safety, broadly construed
  9. Sabotaging electricity
  10. Sabotaging gas, fuel, petroleum, or other flammables or explosives
  11. Hijacking aircraft
  12. Illegal possession, transport or selling of explosives or firearms
  13. Illegally manufacturing, selling, transporting or storing hazardous materials
  14. Theft of explosives or other dangerous material
  15. Theft of firearms, ammunition or other dangerous material

Economic crimes

  2. Production or sale of counterfeit medicine
  3. Production or sale of hazardous food products

Crimes against people

  2. Intentional homicide
  3. Intentional assault
  4. Rape
  5. Kidnapping
  6. Human trafficking

Crimes against property

  2. Robbery

Crimes against public order

  2. Prison escape, jailbreaking
  3. Raiding a prison
  4. Smuggling, dealing, transporting or manufacturing drugs

Crimes against national defense

  2. Sabotaging weapons, military installations, or military communications
  3. Providing substandard weapons or military installations

Corruption and bribery

  2. Embezzlement

Breach of duty by soldiers

  2. Insubordination
  3. Concealment or false reporting of military intelligence
  4. Refusing to pass or falsely passing orders
  5. Surrender
  6. Defection with aircraft or ships
  7. Selling military secrets
  8. Theft of military weaponry or supplies
  9. Illegally selling or transferring military weaponry or supplies
  10. Killing innocent inhabitants of war zones or plundering their property
  11. Cowardice

Amendments

A 2011 amendment to this law for the purpose of legal provisions improvement reduced the number of capital crimes by 19.1% and gave more lenient punishments to minors and the elderly.
In 2015, the criminal code was amended to remove nine capital offenses: