China Prosecuted Nearly 1 Million Last Year

China prosecuted nearly one million people last year and sent more people to jail than in 2005.

The numbers were contained in work reports to China's annual session of parliament by the country's top judge and top prosecutor, though they did not provide year-on-year comparisons and as usual did not say exactly how many people were executed.

A total of 153,724 people received sentences of longer than five years or the death penalty, compared with 131,869 in 2005 -- up almost a fifth.

The number of prosecutions was up some 5 percent at 999,086, while total sentences also rose 5 percent to 889,042.

"Make protecting social stability an important task in criminal trials, and harshly punish according to the law the various crimes that are a major threat to public safety," said president of the Supreme People's Court, Xiao Yang.

"At the same time strictly control and cautiously apply the death sentence and improve ratification procedures and sentencing standards in death penalty cases," Xiao told the National People's Congress delegates.

China kills about 10,000 people a year, according to the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. Other estimates of China's annual executions range between 5,000 and 12,000.

The government does not release numbers.

But final authority in death sentences has since the start of the year been returned to the country's Supreme People's Court, reducing the authority of local courts.

The move followed Chinese media reports last year exposing a slew of wrongful convictions concealed by investigators.