I found an interesting article about Criminal Procedure. The Chinese government has repeatedly insisted that it has no intentions of scrapping the death penalty, claiming that the social "conditions" in the country do not allow it to do so.
Even though some Chinese academics say they are against the punishment in principle, they agree that for now, there is a need to keep it as a deterrent against serious crimes. A more realistic goal would be a stricter threshold for the implementation of the death penalty and keeping the number of executions to a minimum, Chen said. Currently, the death penalty in China is applicable to around 68 criminal offences, including violent crimes such as robbery, rape and murder and economic crimes such as corruption and fraud. Activists say the range of crimes punishable by death is too wide and the deficiency of China's legal system means miscarriages of justice are common. In the meeting this week of the World Congress Against the Death Penalty will issue an appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao to stop capital punishment ahead of the Beijing Games. This is really interesting because I didn't know that they could punish people with the death penalty for things such as robbery, rape, and murder.