China has removed the death penalty for nine crimes as its top legislature adopts new amendments to the country's Criminal Law.

Analysts said the decrease in the use of the death penalty is an important step in China's judicial reform and an improvement in the country's legal system.

Lawmakers on Saturday voted and passed the amendments at the end of a six-day bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on Saturday.

The nine crimes removed from the death penalty include smuggling weapons, ammunition, nuclear materials or counterfeit currency; raising funds by means of fraud; arranging for or forcing another person to engage in prostitution; obstructing a police officer or a person on duty from performing his duties; counterfeiting currency; and fabricating rumors to mislead others during wartime.

The number of crimes punishable by death will drop to 46 when the amendments take effect on November 1.

"Ruling out the nine death penalties shows the progress of China's legal reform," Ruan Qilin, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Sunday. He added that China uses capital punishment more than any other country.

"Capital punishment was adopted in the past to uphold the authority of the law. But the general trend in the development of the Criminal Law is to respect the right to life," Ruan noted.

"The nine crimes punishable by death belong to economic-related or non-violent crimes. In recent years, the death penalty was rarely applied for those in judicial practice, except for raising funds by means of fraud and counterfeiting currency," Qu Xinjiu, a criminal law professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.

This is the second time China has reduced the number of crimes punishable by death since the Criminal Law took effect in 1979.

In 2011, the NPC Standing Committee dropped the death penalty for 13 economic-related non-violent crimes, including smuggling cultural relics, gold and silver; carrying out fraud related to financial bills; forging or selling forged exclusive value-added tax invoices; teaching criminal methods; and robbing ancient cultural ruins.

Sentencing charges

"More importance should be attached to reducing the number of people sentenced to death," Chen Zhonglin, dean of the Law School at Chongqing University, told the Global Times.

Chen suggested that changes should be made to the criterion for sentencing.

"People who carried even a very small amount of illicit drugs could be subjected to the death penalty under the current law. It is not fair."

Also, the new amendments stipulate that criminals convicted of serious corruption who have received a two-year suspended death sentence will face life imprisonment after the two years, with no commutation or parole allowed. 

This aims to "safeguard judicial fairness" and prevent "the most corrupt criminals from serving shorter prison terms through commutation," according to the top legislature.

The amendments also changed the sentencing criterion of corruption cases.

Instead of delivering a sentence solely based on the amount of embezzlement or bribe, the new law suggests that the punishment should depend on both the amount involved and the impact it has caused to society.

 "It could serve as a deterrent to corrupt officials and reflects the determination to crack down on corruption," said Ruan.