We urge the Supreme People's Court to conduct an immediate review of this decision with a view to overturning it. Extending the death penalty to cover more crimes goes against the international trend towards abolition.

We recognize the duty of governments to combat crime, but this is a knee-jerk response -- it shows that China's 'Strike Hard' crime campaign mentality is still prevalent, at least in some parts of the country. There is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments.

We welcome moves towards reforms such as these, but it remains to be seen whether they will lead to better quality trials and a significant reduction in the number of people sentenced to death. Whatever their impact, they must not be seen as a substitute for more wide-ranging reforms aimed at the complete abolition of the death penalty in China.

These detentions and other abuses seriously undermine claims by the authorities to 'respect and protect human rights', a new provision introduced into the Chinese Constitution in March 2004.

Many of these activists are defending human rights. The authorities must ensure that they are able to continue with their peaceful activities without fear of arbitrary detention, harassment or other human rights violations.

We've been campaigning against controls on the Internet in China for many years now. We've been particularly concerned about the number of people who have been put in prison just for expressing their opinion on the Internet, or for accessing certain information that the government finds threatening or embarrassing.