China executes thousands of people every year, easily the most of any country in the world, but that number soon could fall if the government adopts an amendment being discussed this week.

The country's top legislature will consider removing nine crimes from the list of offenses punishable by the death penalty, according to a report from state-run news outlet Xinhua. Currently, 55 crimes carry the death penalty in China.

Among the wrongdoings that would no longer carry the death penalty are weapons smuggling, counterfeiting, and forcing someone into prostitution. A draft of the amendment has been submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for a first reading in the session that runs until Sunday.

Instead of facing death, those convicted of these crimes would face a maximum penalty of life in prison, the draft reads. The other offenses that would no longer be punishable by execution under the proposal are fraud, obstructing a commander or person on duty, spreading rumors during wartime, and the smuggling of ammunition, nuclear materials, and counterfeit money.

The amendment demonstrates China's ongoing effort to reduce the number of crimes that carry the death penalty. In 2011, it removed 13 economic-related crimes from the capital punishment list, the first time the country changed its execution laws since they took effect in 1979, Xinhua reported.

The exact death penalty figures in China are a mystery because they are protected as a state secret. Yet the Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 2,400 people were executed last year and said that executions in 2014 will likely be around the same level. Amnesty International also reported that China executed thousands of people in 2013. The next closest country was Iran, which killed at least 369 people.

Despite the staggering number of executions in China, the figure has actually been declining in recent years, also according to a study by the Dui Hua Foundation. In 2007, the final review of death sentences was returned to the federal level after years of resting with provincial governments, and that is believed to have resulted in decreased executions.

"Since then, the number of executions nationwide may have dropped by more than a third with declines of nearly 50 percent in some locales," the foundation said. Dui Hua noted, however, that this fall in death penalty rates will be counterbalanced by convictions in national anti-terrorism and anti-corruption campaigns this year.

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