China To Execute Economic Criminals

China approved a law Friday extending the death penalty to people convicted of counterfeiting, forgery and other economic crimes.

The law, effective immediately, seeks to “curb crimes, rampant in some places nowadays, such as producing fake currency, passing fake negotiable notes and letters of credit, and illegal pooling of funds,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.

People executed for economic crimes will have their property confiscated by the state.

China has been criticized by human rights groups for increasingly applying the death penalty to non-violent crimes.

Amnesty International counted 1,791 executions in 1994, but believes the actual figure to be much higher.