In yesterday�s (1^st Nov) International Herald Tribune (IHT), I picked up a piece of news related to executions in China (�High Court in China to rule on all executions�).

The news-story mentioned that �China�s Supreme Court will regain* the power to decide on all death sentences under legal changes approved on 31^st Oct �06.� This amendment to existing law �is believed to be the most important reform of capital punishment in China in two decades�, according to Xinhua

This authority is currently vested in the lower courts and was �delegated� to them in 1983 to deter crime and corruption in the early years of
China�s economic boom

And what has this �delegation� lead to?

China does not disclose any official figures for executions but Amnesty estimates that 1770 people were executed in 2005 in China and 3900 were sentenced to death (yes, that�s right, Three Thousand and Nine Hundred).

The newspaper mentions that �Some Chinese legal experts estimate that as many as 8,000 people are executed each year�.

Chinese political leaders strongly defend capital punishment as an essential tool to fight crime and preserve social order (this is ironic given that CPI(M) was asking for clemency to Afzal Guru to maintain public peace!) and Amnesty is further quoted in the article as saying that �No one who is sentenced to death in China receives a fair trial�

Are our comrades listening?