Amnesty International: China Has Made Only Minor Progress

by Nick Amies interviewed Verena Harpe
(dw-world.de)

Verena Harpe, a China expert from Amnesty International Deutschland's Asia desk, spoke with DW-WORLD.DE about the current state of human rights in China and the efforts of the international community.

DW-WORLD.DE: Ever since the international pressure over human rights started to build, what efforts has China made to improve conditions?

Verena Harpe: Unfortunately there have only been minor improvements. In 2007, China reintroduced the Supreme People's Court death penalty review which means that every death sentence must be heard by the top court. Before that, the local courts would just decide. But as there were many miscarriages of justice, and the fact that so many death sentences -- more than in any other country in the world -- were being handed down, international pressure eventually brought about this change. It is unlikely that this change would have come about if the subject hadn't been addressed by the UN and others, so in this case it looks as though pressure has worked. The Chinese say it has reduced the number of death sentences by 15 percent but no-one knows for sure if this is correct because the figures are covered by state secrecy laws. However, in China, there are still around 70 crimes which carry the death sentence, also many non-violent crimes such as economic and drug-related offences.

Read entire interview here.