More info (from wiki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China
Excerpts:
Compared to some developed countries, death sentences are carried out very quickly in China. Usually the time from trial to execution is less than one year and sometimes only months. As of 2005, after a first trial (一審) concludes with a death sentence, the inmate has seven days to appeal to the provincial supreme court, which results in a second trial (二審). If the second trial concludes with a death sentence, it is carried out immediately.
China currently uses two methods of execution. The most common is execution by firearms, which uses an assault rifle to fire a single shot of a hollow point bullet designed to expand upon impact, resulting in the disintegration of the upper portion of the brain. Lethal injection was introduced in 1997. It differs from its application in the U.S. in that it is carried out in fixed locations as well as in specially modified mobile vans. As lethal injection becomes more common, debate has intensified over the fairness of relying on lethal injection to execute high officials convicted of corruption while ordinary criminals get executed by firearms. It is public opinion in China that lethal injection is an easier way for the condemned to die.
In the past the government collected a "bullet fee (子弹费)" from the relatives of the condemned.
The state controlled media, Xinhua News Agency, reported in March 2005 that the court has shown a human touch by allowing the execution of a condemned person to be delayed for one day so that he can have the chance to see his family one last time and bid them farewell.
Several features of capital punishment in China have drawn international criticism even from proponents of the death penalty in liberal states.
Pressure placed on local and regional bureaucracies under the auspices of the "Strike Hard" campaigns has led to the streamlining of capital cases; cases are investigated, cases and appeals are heard, and sentences carried out at rates much more rapid than in other states with developed judicial systems ostensibly based on liberal principles.
Capital punishment in China is not applied on a uniform basis. At times, the government will have so-called "strike-hard" (严打) campaigns aiming to warn the public against committing certain crimes. During such times, the courts will adopt a so-called "act fast, act hard" (从快从重) posture and will hand down punishment more severely and quickly.
Capital punishment is applied flexibly to a wide range of crimes, some of which are punishable by death in no other judicial system in the world. Economic crimes such as tax fraud have appeared routinely among the dockets of those receiving the death sentence, as have relatively small-scale drug offenses. Death is also frequently imposed on repeat offenders whose individual crimes would be considered relatively minor in most judicial systems, such as non-violent theft or causing incidental bodily harm that is not life threatening or debilitating. Capital punishment is also imposed on inchoate crimes, that is, attempted crimes which are not actually fully carried out, including repeat offenses such as attempted theft or attempted fraud. The recidivistic nature of the offenses, not their seriousness per se, is what is adjudicated to merit the capital sentence. One could hardly fail to note certain similarities between the executions of repeat offenders in China as part of the "Strike Hard" campaigns and the "three strikes" policy in California which puts repeat offenders behind bars for life even if individual offenses have been relatively minor.
Capital punishment in China can be imposed on crimes against symbols and treasures of the state, such as theft of cultural relics and the killing of pandas.
