Firing Squad

Twenty-five countries executed prisoners in 2006; 91 percent of them were in China.

The US-based Dui Hua Foundation estimates that 7,500 to 8,000 executions took place in 2006. That means an average of 22 people were killed a day.

Executions are carried out by a bullet to the back of the head or by lethal injection.

Approximately 68 crimes can be punishable by the death penalty in China, including tax fraud, embezzling, accepting bribes and drug-related crimes.

In early 2007 Wang Zhendong was sentenced to death for swindling investors in his ant-breeding business.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration, went on trial in May 2007 for taking bribes, and was executed within two months. Zheng had confessed his crimes and cooperated with investigators. "Killing one corrupt official is not the answer," asserted the International Tribune. "Zheng was a symptom of a grievously flawed system, and not the cause."

Teng Xingshan was executed in 1989 for the murder of his wife. She reappeared in June 2005.

Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 after he was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a local woman. Ten years later someone else confessed and described the crime in detail.

Most of China's transplanted organs are harvested from executed prisoners, without their permission.