China executed more than 1,200 people and sentenced more than 2,000 to death in 1999, Amnesty International claimed in a report published yesterday.
The "minimum" figures, based on media reports, suggest China sentenced to death an average of more than 40 people a week and throughout the 1990s executed more people than the rest of the world put together, Amnesty said. The real figures are thought to be much higher.
Amnesty said it had confirmed 27,599 death sentences and 18,194 executions from 1990 to the end of 1999. That represents an average of 2,759 death sentences and 1,802 confirmed executions each year. The figures were published as China faces censure by the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva this week. Beijing this week rejected an EU call that China abolish capital punishment.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Beijing yesterday confirmed that Chinese police detained a five-year-old US citizen and prevented him from seeing his parents for 26 days without informing the US authorities. Andrew Xue and his parents, Chinese citizens Mr Xue Donghua and Ms Gao Zhan, were detained at Beijing airport on February 11th as they were heading to the United States after visiting some relatives.
The boy was born in America and is a US citizen but his parents are Chinese. A statement from Human Rights International China (HRIC) claimed they were separated and held for 26 days at an unknown location. Andrew was not allowed any contact with his parents and grandparents. Andrew and his father were released on March 8th and have since left the country.
A US embassy spokesman said the HRIC report was "consistent with our understanding of events". Under a consular agreement, China should notify the US side within four days if any of its citizens were detained, he added.