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China´s infamous death penalty record is the product of firm Party-state control and policy-setting. Though during the 1980s and 1990s, the Party´s emphasis was on "kill many," in the 2000s the direction of policy began to move toward "kill fewer." This book details the policies, institutions, and story behind the reform of the death penalty.

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Introduction: The Death Penalty Story Killing Many and Killing Fewer Deciding Guilt Sentencing to Death Choosing Life over Death The Turning Point Shifting Narratives of State Killing Soft-Peddling Harsh Punishment Conclusion: Life Goes On

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"In this magnificent book Susan Trevaskes explains how and why capital punishment in China is changing. She shows that the politics of the Chinese Communist Party are the preeminent cause of shifts in death penalty policy and practice and she argues that the death penalty remains a vital tool in the Party´s approach to regulating society and to protecting its own place at the nation´s helm. This is the best book ever published on the subject and a fascinating and disturbing story about an important human rights issue." - David T. Johnson, professor of Sociology, University of Hawaii and co-author (with Franklin Zimring) of The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

"Anyone who wishes to assess the prospects for abolition of capital punishment throughout the world will need to understand the political forces and tensions behind its changing use in recent years in China from striking hard and killing many, to a more restrained and legally controlled use consistent with the goal of developing a more harmonious society. Susan Trevaskes, a scholar with an unrivaled knowledge of the Chinese sources, demonstrates in this insightful, vividly written, and very persuasive book that, notwithstanding the claim that capital punishment is embedded in Chinese cultural traditions, this substantial change in the use of the death penalty in China has been the result of policy choices determined by the political interests of the Communist Party. Further reforms leading to eventual abolition will therefore be dependent on the speed of political change." - Roger Hood, professor emeritus of Criminology, University of Oxford

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Susan Trevaskes is an Australian Research Council QEII research fellow at Griffith University, Australia.

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