China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang on Wednesday highlighted the removal of death penalty for nine crimes last year as one of the "new strides" made in the country's legislative work.

Presenting a work report on the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee to almost 3,000 lawmakers, Zhang said last year's abolishing of capital punishment for nine crimes that rarely saw the sentence applied was in line with "new circumstances and requirements pertaining to criminal justice."

The nine crimes include smuggling weapons, ammunition, nuclear materials or counterfeit currency, counterfeiting currency, raising funds by means of fraud, arranging for or forcing another person to engage in prostitution, obstructing a police officer or a person on duty from performing his duties, and fabricating rumor to mislead other during wartime.

After removing the capital punishment, those convicted will face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Earlier reports said it was the second time that China reduced the number of crimes that could be subject to death sentence since 1979 when the current Criminal Law took effect.

At the moment, China still has 46 crimes punishable by death in its criminal code.