Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
The incarceration rate of the People's Republic of China varies depending on sources and measures. According to the World Prison Brief, the rate for only sentenced prisoners is 118 per 100,000 (as of 2015). The rate for prisoners including estimations for the number of pre-trial detainees and those in administrative detention is 164 per 100,000 (as of 2015). In a 2010 interview Harry Wu, a U.S.-based human rights activist and ex-Chinese labor camp prisoner, estimates that "in the last 60 years, more than 40–50 million people" were in Chinese labor camps, but that period includes the mass incarcerations of the 1950s or the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and is not representative of modern China.
Capital punishment in China
A survey conducted in 2008 by the Max Planck Institute showed that 60 percent of survey respondents in Beijing, Hubei, and Guangdong supported the death penalty. Thus, capital punishment contributes to the legitimacy of the Communist Party, as the regime is therefore satisfying public sentiment and indignation when corrupt officials are executed. In the past, the public hear few dissenting opinions towards the death penalty. However, reducing or abolishing the use of death penalty has become a topic of open discussion over the recent years.