It shall be stated in the article that People’s republic of China has increasingly become an object of the widespread interest in the western world countries. Despite the fact that the statehood was deprecated because of the historical events (internal affairs, wars etc.) nowadays it is to observe that the significant development of the country remains. However, the entire and complete Criminal codification has not existed. The Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure were passed by the delegates of the Communist Party of China in 1997.

The death penalty has been an element of the Chinese legal system for ages. It was regarded as the main punishment – starting from the ancient times to the present day ending. The progressive humanitarianism of the Chinese Criminal law is noteworthy. China wants to be a political and economic partner of the Western world countries and endeavors to civilize its legal system. It is manifested in the systematic decisions: reducing the amount of the death penalty, suspension the execution of capital punishment, and even decriminalization more and more crimes. The new codification meets the basic principles of a civilized criminal law, which was often in vain look for in earlier  systems of Chinese law. Amendments (2007 – need the approval of the death sentence by the Supreme People’s Court, 2011 – decriminalization of 13 crimes) are aimed at gradually reducing the use of the death penalty.

By keeping  he above trends, the authorities of China will make that only perpetrators of the most serious offenses will be executed.