| Oft-quoted Chinese proverb to defend its liberal use of capital punishment. It is also one of the official government lines regarding the death penalty. Its reasoning is simple. If you execute some criminals as an example, potential criminals would think twice before breaking the law again. And no, sticking the bill for the bullet to the family of the condemned is not part of the policy, China haters.
This policy has been fairly effective in controlling crime, in fact. The direct policies used against crime in China is not only more cost-effective and time-effective, it reduces crime as well. Here is a little listing of the crimes that you get a bullet in the head for in China.
Not complete, I'm sure, but it's a fairly good list. In any case, China's high use of execution has noticeably reduced crime. Considering that China has a huge population and is on average much poorer than the USA, its level of crime is still lower than the US. Besides, the Chinese government cannot afford to put prisoners in conditions that Amnesty International always demands, so why people listen to them is beyond me.
Ahhh, the lies of the American press. I wonder, rgladwell, where did you get the information on that? ABC? CBS? Amnesty? I would have to be skeptical on those reports, since those same agencies portrayed Tiananmen Square as a protest for democracy, loudly insisted on the existence of Chinese spying everywhere in America (with references to American colleges, out of all places), talked about the innocence of Falun Gong, among other things. All false, since the press chooses to exercise selective censorship to mangle the truth until it is sufficiently anti-Chinese, liberal and politically correct.
I recall the crime of corruption to be white-collar crimes involving money. You know, kickbacks, bribes, and the like. I believe the term is "Crimes against the state". America has a similar reference. It's called treason.
Yes, I know the freedom of speech in China is restricted, but not to the bullshit levels that Amnesty always likes to throw around. I live in China, I've noded about it, go read it.
Since you insist talking Orwellian, go read my node thoughtcrime. It's a little bit different from what you're talking about. | 
