Situation during visit in 2005 (See E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6) (r) The scope of the death penalty should be reduced, e.g. by abolishing it for economic and nonviolent crimes. Chinese law provided for the death penalty in relation to a wide range of offences that did not reach the international standard of “most serious crimes”; among the more than 60 capital offences, there were many economic and other nonviolent crimes. (s) Political crimes that leave large discretion to law enforcement and prosecution authorities such as “endangering national security”, “subverting State power”, “undermining the unity of the country”, “supplying of State secrets to individuals abroad” etc. should be abolished. The replacement of the crimes of “counter-revolution” and “hooliganism” in 1997 with vaguely defined crimes in the Chinese CL left their application open to abuse particularly against the peaceful exercise of the fundamental freedoms of religion, speech and assembly. Steps taken in previous years (See A/HRC/4/33/Add.2 and A/HRC/7/3/Add.2) sentences passed by lower courts and an average of approx. 15% of overturned death sentences by the SPC. However, NGOs indicate that no official annual statistics were published and that the estimated number of executions in 2007 was between 5,000 and 6,000. 2006 and 2007: Non-government sources: statistics released by the SPP state that the number of arrests for endangering state security rose from 296 in 2005 to 604 in 2006. Arrests reportedly increased further in 2007 to 742, the highest number since 1999. Information received on steps taken since December 2007/current situation on the impact of SPC oversight on the number of cases of capital punishment was provided. Non-governmental sources: The number of crimes that carry the death penalty has not been reduced (at present 68). Several death sentences for non-capital crimes have been imposed during the reporting period. The SPC is currently working on a judicial interpretation of “the most serious and vile” crimes, for which the death penalty should be applied exclusively. Non-governmental sources: The number of arrests for endangering state security has risen in 2008 in light of the mass arrests following the March 2008 demonstrations in Tibet and the unrest in Xinjiang. The majority of people arrested for endangering state security are arrested for “subversion”, “incitement to subversion”, “splittism” and “incitement to splittism”. The vague definitions of these crimes in the Criminal Law provide the PSB and the State Security Ministry with broad discretion in deciding what constitutes a political crime and how it should be handled. The prohibition on A/HRC/10/44/Add.5 page 16 Recommendation (E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6)