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切尔西女孩在中国: 英国赢不了的阿克毛,麦金农和鸦片战争
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/josephinemcdermott/10136391/akmal-shaikh-and-the-opium-war-the-british-cant-win/
Akmal Shaikh, Gary McKinnon and the opium war the British can't win
By Chelsea Girl in China
Last updated: December 30th, 2009
It seems, the execution of Akmal Shaikh here yesterday surprised no-one but the British government and its liberal lawyer cronies. You see, if you are in China and you break the law, you are punished. It’s pretty straightforward. And it’s the reason why many of China’s big cities like Shanghai are so safe.
Here, the fact that Akmal Shaikh smuggled 4kg of heroin is what has been focused on. In the UK, the supposition that he had a previously un-diagnosed medical condition is what’s being trumpeted.
Here, the concern has been the damage the 4kg of heroin could have caused the population at large. The drug was enough to kill 26,800 people, the authorities say. There, the concern is the damage to the convict’s human rights.
Here, headlines call him a “heroin fiend”, there he’s a “deluded father-of-three”.
Here, evidence of a medical condition cannot be taken into mitigation unless there is prior, certified medical evidence of that condition. There, spurious medical evidence can be introduced at any time that suits the suspect.
Take Gary McKinnon, the Briton who hacked into the Pentagon’s IT system. His lawyers claim that extraditing him would violate his human rights and that he is suffering from “very severe depression”. The prospect of a 60-year sentence can do that to you I suppose. In Britain’s eyes, anyone with a sob story and a good lawyer can be protected from justice in the country where they committed their crime.
It’s the ultimate clash of ideologies. China’s changed the economic world order and now it’s giving the liberal West a moral shot in the arm too.
While China defends the rights of its people to be protected from class A drugs, Britain would sooner release a drug smuggler into the community than deprive him his right to commit crime.
There’s a colonial undertone too. The UK expected China to yield to the might of Great Britain, like it did in 1839, the first time it defended the smuggling of heroin into China. But China refused, insisting on the independence of its judicial system. The days of British sabre-rattling are gone.
So now it’s time for Gordon Brown to stop embarrassing the UK, realise that spin can’t affect change beyond his pitiful dominion and look at the bigger picture. Making China lose face on an international scale won’t do the economy or the country, any favours.
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