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Although the two-hour TV special came to an end shortly before the men were put to death by lethal injection, the program became an instantly polarizing sensation, with viewers divided on whether the program was a crass exercise in blood lust or a long-awaited catharsis for a nation outraged by the killings. Some critics said the program recalled the days when condemned prisoners were paraded through the streets before being shot.

"Rather than showcasing rule of law, the program displayed state control over human life in a manner designed to attract gawkers," Han Youyi, a professor of criminal law, wrote on his microblog account. "State-administered violence is no loftier than criminal violence."

One prominent rights lawyer insisted that the show, on the national broadcaster CCTV, violated the Chinese criminal code by making a spectacle of the condemned.

The program largely focused on Naw Kham, the Burmese ringleader of a drug gang, who was accused of orchestrating the brutal execution of the sailors in October 2011 as they sailed down the Mekong in Myanmar and then making the crime appear to be drug-related. In China, a nation where millions work overseas, often in dangerous corners of the world, the killings were especially unsettling.

Last April, six men accused in the killings, including Naw Kham, were apprehended in Laos by a team of investigators that included officers from China, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. Naw Kham and his accomplices were convicted last November during a two-day trial in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. The men, including a Laotian, a Thai and a third of "unknown nationality," reportedly confessed to the crime. The two men who escaped execution received long prison terms.

Last month, a Chinese public security official told a newspaper that Beijing had considered using a drone strike to kill Naw Kham but later decided to capture him alive.

Given the considerable viewership on Friday, that decision proved to be a good one.

The program included interviews with triumphant police officers, images of the condemned men in shackles and the sort of blustery talking heads that would be familiar to American cable television audiences. The graphic elements that flashed behind the CCTV news anchor included the tagline "Kill the Kingpin."

In one segment, Liu Yuejin, director general of the central government's Narcotics Control Bureau, cast the executions as not only an important victory for a newly confident China but also for ethnic Chinese across the globe. "In the past, overseas Chinese dared not say they were of Chinese origin," he said. "Now they can hold their heads high and be themselves." 

Supporters of the program were many, and enthusiastic. One blogger suggested that death by lethal injection was too lenient, adding "These beasts should be pulled apart by vehicles." 

Shortly before the men were led from their cells to the van that would take them to the death chamber, a reporter asked Naw Kham to talk about his family and then taunted him by showing photos of the victims' grieving relatives. "I want to raise my children and have them educated," Naw Kham said with a faint smile on his face. "I don't want to die."