Getting accurate data on events within China can be quite frustrating. Thus, it was somewhat amusing to me to see how the Dui Hua Foundation, cited in an article by the Economist, gathered data on the number of executions in China.
In 2012 a deputy minister of health cited the decline in executed prisoners as a reason for a shortage in organs available for transplant in China.
This highlights both the disturbing fact that China's government is still killing a lot of people (And there may arise cases where a prisoner is killed more because they are compatible than because they guilty) as well as how hard it is to get accurate statistics on events occurring within China.
The lack of good data from China is highly relevant right now because they are attempting to cool down their overheating shadow banking credit markets prior to financial reform. The main signs of what is happening is coming from their interbank market, where interest rates are spiking.
Tightening financial conditions well into a boom without causing a crash is difficult, and without data it might be hard for foreign observers to tell if things are going wrong until it is too late to react.