China is going to execute fewer of its citizens.

Under an amendment recently passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC), the number of crimes punishable by death in China will be reduced from 54 to 45.

The amendment, effective November 1, will remove the following from the list of offences punishable by death: smuggling weapons, ammunition, nuclear materials or counterfeit currency; raising funds by means of fraud; arranging for or coercing another person to engage in prostitution; obstructing a police officer or a person on duty from performing his duties; counterfeiting currency; and fabricating rumors to mislead others during wartime.

This is the second time since 1979, when the Criminal Law was enacted, that China has reformed sentencing. In 2011, the death penalty was removed for 13 non-violent crimes, including: smuggling cultural relics, gold and silver; carrying out fraud related to financial bills; forging or selling forged exclusive value-added tax invoices; teaching criminal methods; and robbing ancient cultural ruins.

The number of criminals executed in China each year is not made public, although the Dui Hua Foundation had estimated the number to be around 2,400 in 2013, which was more than all other countries’ executions combined. Capital punishment in China is usually performed by way of firing squad, although lethal injection has increasingly been used.

Capital punishment is supported by a relatively slim majority of the Chinese people; a 2007 poll of Beijing, Hunan, and Guangdong found that 57 percent of respondents were in favor of it.

Other recent changes to China’s criminal law system include:

• Sex with an underage prostitute will be “reclassified” as rape, which will attract harsher penalties
• For the first time, men will be considered as victims of sexual assaults
• For the first time, criminal penalties for people convicted of purchasing abducted women and children
• Tougher sentences for assaulting a police officer (on duty) and for contempt of court
• The promotion of terrorism or extremism by producing and distributing terror-related information will face more than five years in prison, as will instigators of terrorist activities
• Up to life imprisonment for cases involving cults