A northeastern Chinese province announced Thursday that shooting as a means of death penalty execution had become something of the past within its jurisdiction.

Up to date, all cities in Liaoning Province have adopted lethal injection in executing criminals, said Liaoning Higher People's Court Vice President Zuo Lianbi.

As a major way of execution in China, shooting execution was written into the Constitution in 1979. It had been the only lawful execution method in China until 1996, when the amended Criminal Procedural Law put lethal injection as an alternative way of capital punishment.

Since 2001 when the Supreme People's Court ordered expanding the use of lethal injections, the courts nationwide have worked hard for the transition.

Mou Ruijin, associate professor from the Law School of the Northeast University, said, "Lethal injection reduces the pain and fear of the criminal. It is a more humane way in carrying out execution."

Prof. Xu Lanting of the Renmin University of China said lethal injection becoming a legal way of execution reflected the concept of human rights protection in the country's judicial reform.

Xu said as death penalty could not be immediately abolished in China due to the country's actual conditions, execution methods should be improved to protect criminals' human rights.

Lethal injection would be more widely used in China and eventually replace shooting in carrying out death penalty, Xu said.

A senior official, when assessing China's performance in improving human rights situation last week, said the country had made progress in many fields in protecting human rights.

Wang Chen, minister in charge of the Information Office of the State Council, said at a meeting on the implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) that the two-year action plan, the first of its kind in China, had been well implemented since it was released in April.

The plan sets out targets to ensure people's rights to employment, basic living necessities, social welfare, health care, education, cultural facilities, clean environment, judicial justice, religious freedom, expression of opinions, and the rights to know about, participate in and supervise political affairs.

The government made people's rights to subsistence and development a top priority in its human rights protection cause, Wang said.

Statistics show the Chinese government has allocated 19.73 billion yuan (2.9 billion U.S. dollars) as poverty relief funds this year, up 3 billion yuan from last year.

Moreover, Chinese people are enjoying more freedom of expression.

One example is that since January, all draft laws, to be considered by the top legislature, have been publicized on-line in full text to solicit opinions.

Despite progress in human rights protection, some problems still existed. The country's huge population, unbalanced development among different regions and incomplete social development would bring new challenges to the realization of the goals set by the human rights action plan, Wang said.