China executes British national, flexes its diplomatic muscle?
On Tuesday, China executed a British national accused of smuggling heroin. Akhmal Shaikh was a 53-year-old father whom relatives have said was mentally ill. Britain diplomatically protested the execution right up to the end, but the man's relatives say the government didn't do enough.
China contends that it was a criminal case, independent of diplomacy, in which a drug smuggler was convicted with 4 kg of heroin.
This video has a statement from the Chinese government and some reactions from Chinese citizens.
British Citizen Executed in China: Raw Video
If Shaikh was mentally ill, arguably in the West he would have been granted some sort of different treatment. Additionally, he would not have been sentenced to death even if found guilty. There would also have been more transparency to his trial. But, this was in China. Regardless of his guilt or innocence, Shaikh's relatives raise a good point. Britain, still considered a diplomatic powerhouse on the world stage, does need to bend significantly to China's economic might. And with views to human rights (and subsequently criminal trials) markedly different between the PRC and the West, this sort of incident could easily crop up again.
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...[I]n a letter to the Guardian newspaper, his cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh lamented the lack of real British influence in the case.
"Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?" they wrote.
"This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world. Their strategy of being shoulder to shoulder with the US in the 'war on terror' has not given them the status they so desperately desire."
The cousins noted that "one of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is 'human rights violations'."
"If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren't they, too, invaded? This is purely to do with the fact that China is a powerful country economically.
"Britain's economic dependence far outweighs these 'individual cases'."
China contends that it was a criminal case, independent of diplomacy, in which a drug smuggler was convicted with 4 kg of heroin.
This video has a statement from the Chinese government and some reactions from Chinese citizens.
British Citizen Executed in China: Raw Video
If Shaikh was mentally ill, arguably in the West he would have been granted some sort of different treatment. Additionally, he would not have been sentenced to death even if found guilty. There would also have been more transparency to his trial. But, this was in China. Regardless of his guilt or innocence, Shaikh's relatives raise a good point. Britain, still considered a diplomatic powerhouse on the world stage, does need to bend significantly to China's economic might. And with views to human rights (and subsequently criminal trials) markedly different between the PRC and the West, this sort of incident could easily crop up again.
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Five years since the tsunami
- Holiday news video round-up: Iran protests, British skiing and drinking, mud races
- How do you help Sebikotane, Senegal - Global Citizen Year
- Don't give into road rage - A doctor's commentary on the mammogram screening controversy
- Mexico City legalizes gay marriage
