Findings show that even the young Chinese elites are very punitive; the Chinese state provides a punitive culture to its citizens which contributes to and reinforces popular attitudes. Chinese crime rates have increased during recent modernization. The old informal rules which kept crime under control for many decades are no longer functional. After building a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics during the first two decades since the initiation of economic reforms in 1978, China is now on the road to the rule of law. In the criminal justice field, China has made much praiseworthy progress; however, as the strike hard policy shows, criminal law in China is still an instrument of repression. Authoritarianism is still the reigning ideology of the state, although the rule of law requires a balance of treatment and protection. The relationship between public opinion on the death penalty and the death penalty itself works like a vicious circle: state policies and legal practices influence public opinion, and public opinion then becomes a force of resistance against reforms of state policies. Data were collected from 900 Chinese students living in Germany. Tables, graphs, appendix, and references