Amnesty International is concerned about the continuing increase in death sentences and executions in China. This rise occurs in the context of successive anti-crime campaigns launched since 1989. Official figures indicate a growing drugs problem: most cases occur in the southern provinces of Yunnan and Guandong but others are reported in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces. AI is particularly worried about the reported mass sentencing and execution of drug offenders. At least 70 people were reportedly executed in June 1991 after mass sentencing rallies in Kunming; according to another report, 35 men and women were executed in Kunming in October 1991. AI is concerned that the death sentences may have been imposed after apparently unfair trials.
