“To those who haChinese President Hu Jintao hurried back home from the G8 meeting in Rome in response to the ethnic clashes in Urumqi, Xinjiang that claimed 160 lives. He called for severe punishment - including the death penalty against the perpetrators. “To those who have committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them,” Li Zhi, the top Communist Party official in Urumqi, said July 8.
197 are now reported dead, according to China Daily, July 19, 2009. Many arrests are sure to follow.
The moment poses a severe challenge to the Chinese judicial system, long the object of western criticism.
The death penalty itself has been the object of much debate. A move away from the death penalty has been promoted under the leadership of Supreme People's Court chief Xiao Yang. The policy maxim "kill fewer, kill carefully" - though infelicitous - captures the leadership's view.
According to a 2008 China Daily report the SPC has rejected about 15 percent death penalties since it removed provincial courts' final review power on Jan 1 2007. "Death sentences have been decreasing gradually, which means better human rights protection."
Xiao says it's "too early and unrealistic for China to abolish the death penalty because of the country's long history of capital punishment". Even for non-violent and financial crimes, deserve death "if their actions are extremely harmful to society" in his view.
"We need to keep the death penalty and use it as an effective deterrent, even though we can't exaggerate this factor. We must be extremely careful while handing down a death sentence. We should have human rights in mind."
"Extremely careful" may be a challenge when carnage as great as last week's has occurred. But looking back at the last major event in Xinjiang provides cause to believe that the rsponse will in fact be reasonably restrained. In April 2009 4000 local Xinjiang officials gathered in an arena to hear the announcement of the execution of two Uighur men who had driven an explosive-laden truck into a crowd of 70 border policemen, killing 17.
The attack, in Kashgar, Xinjiang, took place four days before the start of the Beijing Olympics in early August 2008. Trial and Supreme Court review were completed in four months. Although the procedural steps and barriers that we have do not exist there, the system - from a deterrent point of view, and retributive point of view appears to have functioned in an exemplary way. The punishment fit the crime, and justice was swift.
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