China will slowly reduce executions of prisoners, legal authorities said.
Rules issued by the country's top court, police ministry and other law agencies urged an end to street parades of prisoners facing execution and warned police against using torture, state media reported last night.
But the regulations promised no quick end to China's liberal use of the death sentence.
New rules on executions issued by China's top court
China kills about 10,000 people a year, according to the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. Other estimates of China's annual executions range between 5,000 and 12,000.
The death penalty can be imposed for dozens of crimes, including non-violent offences such as corruption and tax fraud.
"Our country still cannot abolish the death penalty but should gradually reduce its application," the rules state, according to the China News Agency. "Anybody who could or could not be killed should without exception not be killed."
The regulations follow China's return of final authority in death sentences to the country's Supreme People's Court from the start of this year, reducing the authority of local courts.
They also follow Chinese media reports last year exposing a slew of wrongful convictions concealed by investigators.
Police have been warned not to repeat these errors. "Ensure crime suspects and defendants fully exercise their rights to defence and other procedural rights, and avoid stripping or restricting suspects and defendants lawful rights and so creating cases of injustice," the rules state.
Statements obtained through torture, violence and threats cannot be used "as the basis for conclusions in a case", the rules state, reinforcing laws against such abuses.