London: China will execute almost 400 people during the Beijing Olympics this August, leading human rights watchdog Amnesty International has alleged.
"According to reliable estimates, on (an) average China secretly executes around 22 prisoners every day - that's 374 people during the Olympic Games," Amnesty's British director Kate Allen said in a statement yesterday.
A new league table of executions puts China at the top, having admitted using capital punishment 470 times last year, the London-based group said, while adding that campaigners believe the true figure is 8,000.
"As the world's biggest executioner, China gets the 'gold medal' for global executions," Allen said.
Amnesty urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as Olympic athletes themselves to press for greater openness about executions by China, which will host the 2008 Games in Beijing from August 8 to 24.
The group, which has no presence in China, said Beijing's human rights record was getting "worse" as it tries to present a united front by cracking down on dissent.
Amnesty urged the IOC and the international community to maintain pressure on Beijing.
Nearly 70 crimes can carry the death penalty in China including tax fraud, stealing VAT receipts, damaging electric power facilities, selling counterfeit medicine, embezzlement, accepting bribes and drugs offences, the Amnesty said.
China, Allen alleged, classified the death penalty as a state secret. "As the world and Olympic guests are left guessing, only the Chinese authorities know exactly how many people have been killed with state authorisation.
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