Some of those sentenced for drug crimes may have to wait weeks or even months so that their execution coincides with the “International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” commemorated on June 26. Unlike most death sentences which are not reported in the media, the timing of drug crime-related executions is often governed by political concerns rather than the court’s timetable (see Chapter 1 on Most Serious Crimes for more detail on drug crimes). Chinese lawyers have stated that due to the, relatively, short time between SPC approval and execution, the problem of the death row phenomenon does not exist in China. However, the two-year suspended sentence is considered a death sentence and the threat of execution remains. Individuals sentenced to the twoyear suspended death penalty, and those imprisoned for long periods pending appeal, may also suffer psychological distress that resembles the death row phenomenon criticised in other jurisdictions. The Method of Execution In China, lethal injection is considered to be more humane and scientific, compared to shooting, as a method of execution. It is also more expensive. Lethal injection was introduced as an alternative method of execution to shooting in the 1997 amendment of the Criminal Procedure Law, article 252, as a result of both domestic and international concern over the use of firing squad as inhumane and cruel. The CPL, article 252, states that death sentences are carried out by methods such as shooting or lethal injection and may be carried out on execution grounds or inside a designated detention area. Although statistics about the use of lethal injection, and the types of drugs and dosages, remain a state secret, it is believed that its use has expanded across China since the mid-2000s; application, however, is likely to be uneven.43 Chinese legal debates in the mid-2000s emphasised the need for lethal injection as a more humane method over shooting. The use of mobile vans to execute people was also introduced and were argued to be a cost effective method in which to carry out the lethal injection. However, concerns have been raised over the vans as a means by which to make organ harvesting easier.44 Other areas of concern include the determination of death which does not conform to medical science or international standards of medical ethics. Although there is little published about the lethal injection in China, it is known that death is induced pharmacologically by using anaesthetics and lethal drugs, and it is thus considered reasonable that the combination of drugs used for lethal injection is the same as those used in the U.S. (sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride). This combination of drugs as the lethal injection has been criticised in the United States, and internationally, over concerns that it could inflict serious pain once administered. Procurators and judges must witness the executions and eyewitnesses say that they have been distressed by what they have seen in the use of the lethal injection, including the belief that the person was not dead at the time it was declared. Evidence shows that in China the practice of declaring death by lethal injection within “tens of seconds” is not sufficient time. Moreover, executions are not always carried out by a trained medical doctor or with the appropriate expertise. There have been reports of 43 Trevaskes, Susan. “From ‘Killing Many’ to ‘Killing Fewer’” in Liang, Bin and Lu, Hong (eds) The Death Penalty in China: Policy, Practice and Reform, Columbia University Press, 2016. 44 Trevaskes, Susan. The Death Penalty in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 55