In Chongqing, a pair of killers were executed this morning after prosecutors confirmed a cold-blooded plan to murder two young children. The deeds were carried out by Zhang Bo and his partner Ye Chengchen, who were both 29 years old. Their execution followed a high court review that upheld the death sentence originally handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court, a decision reported by national media in China on Wednesday.
The Supreme People’s Court issued a statement saying the defendants were interrogated in a lawful manner, their rights were observed, and their defense was heard before the verdict was confirmed. The court emphasized that it approved the sentence after a thorough examination of the evidence presented by both sides. The ruling labeled the double homicide as deliberately brutal and described it as exceeding all boundaries of law and morality.
The court’s findings indicate that Zhang concealed his marriage and his two children with Ye, a relationship that began in 2019, from significant others and from the broader family. On the day of the incident, a two-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy fell to their deaths from a substantial height, initially appearing to be an accident but ultimately attributed to a calculated act.
After Zhang and Ye formalized their divorce in 2020, authorities determined that Ye would gain custody of one of the children under certain conditions. Pressured by the partner to eliminate the children, Ye allegedly argued that neither she nor her family could accept continuing a relationship with a man who had an existing child.
According to testimony from the children’s mother, the hearing included a claim that Zhang had called Ye during the events and that Ye responded with self-harm threats, vowing to kill herself if the children were harmed. The narrative contends that Ye then threw the children from the apartment window.
After the execution, the grandmother of the minors spoke of the ongoing pain felt by the family. Still, she suggested that the death penalty provides a sense of closure for the household and serves as a form of justice for the two children, as reported by Red Star News, a local outlet.
Official Chinese statistics do not publish comprehensive numbers on executions, but Amnesty International has long indicated that thousands of executions are believed to occur in the country annually. The present case underscores the seriousness with which the authorities treat violent crimes, especially those involving familial betrayal and harm to children.