China now uses lethal injections instead of public firing squads. Justice is dispensed "out of death vans which shuttle town to town," from USATODAY click here Chinese officials say this is "a civilized alternative" and promotes human rights now, ending the life of the condemned more quickly, clinically and safely. Others would say, "It's a big country, China has a lot of people, some break the law." Others would say, "That's typical of their unemotional attitude."
Capital punishment in China is a state secret but, "Amnesty International estimates there were at least 1,770 executions in China in 2005 [number in that year alone] -- vs. 60 in the United States." On its website, the organization says the toll could be as high as 8,000 prisoners.
One would think that if the Chinese government had made a decision on how to implement capital punishment as a deterrent to crime, they would be proud to give the public exact information.
From an article by news provider, "Foreign Policy," titled "America's Most Embarrassing Allies" http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/31/americas_other_most_embarrassing_allies they show a familial photograph of George W. Bush, in an tight grasp of friendship, with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Bush guides the King around his Texas compound (Texas Blue Bonnet flowers in the background). "Foreign Policy" says, "The kingdom remains one of the most repressive countries on Earth, Torture and detention without trial are commonplace." http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/saudi-arabia
From the NGO, Human Rights Watch, "In March, 2010, a Medina court reaffirmed Lebanese television presenter Ali Sibat's death sentence for witchcraft based on his fortune-telling show broadcast from Lebanon."
Others in the world might call Americans hypocrites if they say nothing about executions in the United States. Visit http://www.texastribune.org/texas-dept-criminal-justice/death-penalty/tribblog-texas-seeking-execution-drug/ if you want to see what the lethal injection syringes look like.
Note, a few words on executions in Russia - there have not been any government executions (that we know of) since 1996, but the law is still "codified under military law, as punishment for 5 crimes: treason, espionage, mutiny, desertion, sedition." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Russia Recently, there were some public calls for the moratorium to be lifted after the bomb explosion at Moscow airport in January of 2011. But what about during the Cold War?
Just as China now considers the details of capital punishment a state secret, so did Russia during the Cold War. Firing squads were typical during Stalin's regime, but also after World War II, Russians to some degree, learned from Nazi death camps.
The following text is the first three pages of my screenplay for "Blue Group" and a startling way to begin a movie. This comes from a true story of the life Frederic DeLis, as a young man, some time in the 1950's. Mr. DeLis was an officer, agent and operator, first for the CIA (he was recruited out of college at age 17 in 1947), and then for the NSA at its inception, until he retired in 1993.
DeLis resembled a Russian spy, who was an employee of the United Nations and was apprehended by American intelligence. Frederic's assignment was to replace the agent and find out where that took him, literally. American intelligence had no prior information of execution technology until Frederic stood there looking at it.
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