2 killers, 2 rapists executed after top court review

China executed two child killers and two serial rapists on Wednesday after the Supreme People's Court approved their death sentences.

The top court identified the men as Yang Shengsong, Xu Chuanyun, Chen Yuzhang and Pan Yonggui.

Yang from Guizhou province killed two children by hitting their heads with a brick in 2016, while Xu from Sichuan province raped and killed a 10-year-old girl in July 2015, according to an SPC statement.

Chen was a primary school teacher in Nanjian township, Yunnan province, who raped 14 girls between September 2012 to September 2015. All but one of his victims was under 14, and six of them were raped dozens of times, the top court said.

Pan, a villager from Mile in Yunnan, was part of a gang responsible for raping 19 women, including 18 minors, in Mile and Mengzi between March and June 2014. He was directly involved in the rape of 12 women, with one victim sustaining serious injuries after jumping from a building, it added.

"Children and teenagers, as our future, must be given the best protection," an unnamed official with the SPC's No 1 Criminal Division said in the statement. "We have strictly applied capital punishment to offenders who targeted minors to show zero tolerance."

The official said all four cases were "extremely serious".

"We'll uphold the death penalty and give heavy punishments to those who target students and left-behind children or harm juveniles to get revenge on society," they added.

Since 2007, all death sentences must been reviewed and approved by the SPC.