The London-based human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has called for a moratorium on the death penalty in China, saying that the country's justice system is in no condition to offer fair trials.
In a report, Amnesty says many innocent people were being executed by what it described as a dysfunctional criminal justice system.
It cited four cases in which police allegedly used torture to elicit confessions from suspects who were later sentenced to death.
Amnesty International said a moratorium would be a first step towards the total abolition of the death penalty.
It said that its report came a week after a Chinese legislator suggested China executes 10,000 people a year.
China's Foreign Ministry has reacted by saying that the government is in no position to abolish the death penalty, which it said is applied with the utmost caution.
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