CHINA is considering dropping capital punishment for economic crimes.

A draft amendment to the country's criminal code proposes cutting 13 "economy-related, non-violent offenses" from the list of 68 crimes punishable by the death penalty.

The draft was submitted for a first reading to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature. A draft usually has two or three readings before it is voted on.

The draft also includes a proposal to abolish the death sentence for people aged below 18 or for those older than 75 when the crime is committed.

Officials with the Criminal Law Office of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee said the 13 crimes affected by the amendment are crimes for which the death penalty was seldom, if ever, used in recent years.

The crimes to be no longer punished by death include carrying out fraudulent activities with financial bills and letters of credit, and forging and selling invoices to avoid taxes. Others include smuggling cultural relics and precious metals such as gold out of the country.

Li Shishi, director of legislative affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, said that because of China's economic development, dropping the death penalty from some economic-related crimes would not hurt social stability or public security.

If the amendment becomes law, it will be the first time the number of crimes subject to the death penalty has been reduced since the People's Republic of China enacted its criminal law in 1979.

China currently stipulates that 68 crimes are punishable by the death penalty.

Death penalties had been mainly meted out for seven or eight crimes, including murder, rape and robbery, but rarely given for other crimes, so there is room for reducing the number of crimes punishable by execution, said Chen Zexian, a criminal law expert at the China Law Society.

The 13 crimes that would be exempted from the death penalty include falsely issuing exclusive value-added tax invoices to defraud export tax refunds or to offset taxes; forging or selling forged exclusive value-added tax invoices; teaching crime-committing methods; and robbing ancient cultural ruins, among others.

Officials said no one had been given the death penalty for teaching methods of how to commit crime since 1997.

The Criminal Law extended the death penalty to the crime of forging or selling forged exclusive value-added tax invoices in 1997 to fight a then-rampant economic crime. However, that crime has rarely been committed in recent times amid intensified work by tax authorities.

While limiting the use of the death penalty, the draft amendment would provide stricter rules for commuting the death penalty with a reprieve. The draft also proposes that the maximum fixed-term sentence be raised from 20 to 25 years.

Reducing the number of death sentences is a worldwide legislative trend, said Liu Mingxiang, deputy dean at the Renmin University of China's Law School.

More than 90 countries have abolished the death penalty and eight countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes. More than 40 countries that have the death penalty haven't used it for more than a decade.

Abolishing the death penalty has not led to a rise in crime in those countries, according to Liu.

"Punishing criminals as severely as possible is not the best way to prevent crime," said Liu.

• punishment [´pʌniʃmənt] n.罚，刑罚 (初中英语单词)
• amendment [ə´mendmənt] n.改正，修订；修正案 (初中英语单词)
• criminal [´kriminəl] a.犯罪的 n.罪犯 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• abolish [ə´bɔliʃ] vt.废除；废止；取消 (初中英语单词)
• sentence [´sentəns] n.判决 vt.宣判；处刑 (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• cultural [´kʌltʃərəl] a.文化(上)的；教养的 (初中英语单词)
• director [di´rektə] n.指导者；....长；导演 (初中英语单词)
• security [si´kjuəriti] n.安全；证券；抵押品 (初中英语单词)
• republic [ri´pʌblik] n.共和国；共和政体 (初中英语单词)
• mainly [´meinli] ad.主要地；大体上 (初中英语单词)
• rarely [´reəli] ad.难得；非凡地 (初中英语单词)
• expert [´ekspə:t] n.&a.专家；内行 (初中英语单词)
• export [ik´spɔ:t] vt.&n.输出，出口 (初中英语单词)
• commit [kə´mit] vt.犯(罪)；把...判处 (初中英语单词)
• penalty [´penlti] n.刑罚；惩罚；障碍 (高中英语单词)
• commission [kə´miʃən] n.委任(状) vt.委任 (高中英语单词)
• legislative [´ledʒislətiv] a.立法的 (高中英语单词)
• forging [´fɔ:dʒiŋ] n.锻件；锻造(法) (高中英语单词)
• execution [,eksi´kju:ʃən] n.执行；演奏；表演 (高中英语单词)
• exclusive [ik´sklu:siv] a.独有的；集中的 (高中英语单词)
• maximum [´mæksiməm] n.极点 a.最大的 (高中英语单词)
• deputy [´depjuti] n.代理人；代表 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• severely [si´viəli] ad.剧烈地；严格地 (高中英语单词)
• considering [kən´sidəriŋ] prep.就...而论 (英语四级单词)
• legislature [´ledʒisleitʃə] n.立法机关 (英语四级单词)
• stability [stə´biliti] n.稳定；巩固；坚定 (英语四级单词)
• robbery [´rɔbəri] n.抢劫(案)；盗取 (英语四级单词)
• affected [ə´fektid] a.做作的；假装的 (英语六级单词)
• offset [´ɔ:fset] n.&vt.抵销；补偿 (英语六级单词)
• extended [iks´tendid] a.伸长的；广大的 (英语六级单词)