Class Conflict and the Death Penalty in China

• In Event: Reassessing Penal Severity, Capital Punishment and White-Collar Crime in China

Abstract

This paper will investigate the social forces that underpin the use of the death penalty for corruption in China. Conflict Theory argues that the dominant class wields its power to exact harsh punishment on the powerless and trivialize its own economic crimes. Interestingly, this argument looks shaky when considering the death penalty in China.

In 2012, the National People’s Congress decided to retain the death penalty for corruption. It also decided to eliminate the death penalty for thirteen other non-violent economic crimes. Why did the government decide to maintain the death penalty to address an offense that is trivialized in Western countries? The motivation behind such a use of the death penalty has not yet been fully explored.

This article will first examine the historical events that have generated class conflict in China, which may indeed be one of the social forces that contribute to the use of the death penalty for white-collar crime. This paper will also indicate the way the law serves as a bottom-up cultural influence. Second, this paper will employ content analysis of official documents to investigate the ways the Chinese government utilizes the language of class conflict to disguise its poor governance.

Author

• Puma Shen, University of California, Irvine