FOUR heroin traffickers have been executed and another was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve in China's eastern Zhejiang province, state media said today.

Wang Daohua, Yin Yaxiong, Zhu Zhongfa and Zheng Qiukang were put to death Wednesday after being convicted by a Jinhua city court of organizing, transporting and selling 76.3 kilograms of heroin from 2001 to 2002.

Wang Yan, another gang member, was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, the Xinhua news agency said.

The gang was accused of buying drugs from southwest Yunnan province and transporting them to Shanghai. Another seven members of the gang were still at large, Xinhua said.

Earlier this week, a Chinese parliamentary delegate said China executes around 10,000 people every year, about five times more than all the other death penalty cases from around the world combined.

While China is notorious for its liberal use of the death penalty, it officially maintains that the number of people executed each year is a closely guarded state secret.

AAP