China, which keeps the number of people it executes under wraps, is believed to have carried out about 8,000 executions in 2005, said Liu Renwen, a scholar at the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Amnesty International (AI) documented at least 3,400 executions in 2004 - 90% of the total of capital punishments recorded around the world - but workers in the human-rights lobby said they believe the actual number to be higher.
