ABSTRACT
The world came to know about China’s death penalty practices mostly through research and media reports from Western countries. Biased or not, its death penalty practices are frequently vilifi ed in both substance and procedures. In fact, the common stereotypical image is that China uses the death penalty to suppress minority threats in questionable legal proceedings that lack basic procedural safeguards, force confessions, and provide little access to legal representation. The presumed application of capital punishment to a wide array of criminal misconduct, its execution by a single-bullet shot to the back of the head, the quick and immediate imposition of the punishment after conviction, and the harvesting of the person’s organs for transplant purposes are other salient elements of the Western image of China.
