China has made heavy use of the death penalty in crackdown campaigns against separatist activities in the frontier regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, drug trafficking in the south west and rampant organised crime in its old industrial heartlands.
It's true that local officials do call the shots in their areas, but they can also be replaced or become subject to central government-inspired crackdown campaigns.
Furthermore their company was necessary to avoid police confrontation, particularly during crackdown campaigns.
The introduction of Islamic 'Hudood' laws prohibiting and punishing promiscuity by the military government in 1979 and subsequent crackdown campaigns led to the closure of many brothels and red-light areas.
The teenager was the latest victim in Duterte's violent crackdown, a campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 12,000 people since 2016.
It has even been at the forefront of one aspect of the crackdown: the antigay campaign.
The crackdown follows a campaign in the Guardian's Money section alerting readers to copycat websites and revealing the tangled network of traders behind them.
This was followed by a security crackdown and a campaign by the regime or its allies to discredit calls for reform by attributing them to Israeli conspiracies or opposition leaders.
