China considers abolishing death penalty for nine crimes
Number of offences that lead to execution to fall from 55 to 46 after reforms pledge
Beijing is considering excluding nine crimes, including illegal fundraising, from the list of offences punishable by death.
This would bring down the number of crimes carrying capital punishment from 55 to 46 and follows Communist Party pledges of broader reforms to the legal system at its fourth plenum last week.
Legal experts described it as a step forward in improving the justice system as the nation faced mounting international pressure to scrap the death penalty.
There was public uproar in 2012 when a local court upheld the death sentence against businesswoman Wu Ying for defrauding investors out of 770 million yuan (HK$973 million). Later in the same year, the Supreme People's Court overturned the death penalty in the review of her case.
This is the country's second move to shorten the list of crimes that are punishable by death, after exempting 13 economic crimes in 2011.
Other crimes covered in the latest review include forcing a person to engage in prostitution and counterfeiting currencies.