China's top legislature plans to reduce the number of crimes punishable by death. 

Zang Tiewei of the NPC Standing Committee's Commission for Legislative Affairs says an amendment to China's Criminal Law is a key part of their legislative agenda for this year.  

Earlier in November, a step-by-step reform blueprint that will reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty was published.  

Like Us on Facebook

There are currently 55 offenses in China that are punishable by death.

The Supreme People's Court also vowed in November to eliminate torture as a means of extract confessions, stop local officials from interfering in legal decisions, and to allow judges to make their own decisions.

With talks on legal reforms high on the agenda of the annual legislators' conference, the Communist Party's highest authority on judicial and security matters stands to lose much of its power to interfere in court cases.

Such interference in the past has led to wrongful convictions, an issue which President Xi Jinping said needs to be addressed immediately.

But the party will retain its voice in politically sensitive cases like ethnic issues and abusive practices by senior politicians.

Supreme People's Court president Zhou Qiang told the parliament on Monday that the courts must improve their ability to exercise judicial power independently, essentially admitting that there had been miscarriages of justice and abuse of power by some officials.

"Perfect the work mechanism of preventing and correcting injustices. (We) must not allow law enforcers to cause miscarriages of justice. Protect the innocent from being held responsible," said Zhou.

He said his courts will mete out severe punishment to crimes that endanger national security, boost efforts to punish corruption, and "actively and steadily push forward the reform of the judiciary."