【10.1.1 Globe and Mail】With execution of British man, China sends a signal

和解团结

【原文链接】http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/with-execution-of-british-man-china-sends-a-signal/article1414538/

【作者】John Ibbitson


【原文】




Being European no longer spares you from a lethal injection in China.

The British government is apoplectic over the execution Tuesday of Akmal Shaikh, a British drug smuggler. It is the first time a European has been put to death by the Chinese government for a crime in almost 60 years.

“I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement, “and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted.

“I am particularly concerned that no mental-health assessment was undertaken,” he added. Mr. Shaikh's family maintains he was mentally unstable, and duped into carrying a suitcase full of heroin into the country.

The Chinese government brushed off British condemnation, saying Mr. Shaikh had been given a fair trial.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, the Chinese Supreme Court did not find the documents provided by the British government and aid organizations attesting to Mr. Shaikh's mental condition convincing.

“Nor did members of his family have a history of mental disease,” the court went on. “There is no reason to cast doubt on Akmal Shaikh's mental status.”

The Chinese government might also have been sending a message.

“The Chinese authorities are sending out a signal,” said Charles Burton, a political scientist at Brock University who is one of Canada's leading experts on China. “They won't be giving foreign passport holders special consideration.”

In some ways, the execution of Mr. Shaikh could be seen as the Chinese finally ending the last vestige of the old principle of extraterritoriality for foreign nationals in China. In the 19th and early 20th century, the United States and European powers compelled Chinese governments to accept that foreign nationals were effectively exempt from prosecution by Chinese officials under Chinese laws.

Even in recent decades, Chinese governments have commuted the death sentences of Europeans found guilty of any of at least 68 offences – from tax fraud to the killing of pandas – that are punishable by death under Chinese law.

For Prof. Burton, the execution of Mr. Shaikh could be seen as “a sign that China has more confidence in itself in the world and doesn't feel it has to give special consideration” to foreign nationals.

But there are other interpretations. “The message could be as much for a domestic audience as for an international audience,” said Yuen Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

“The drug scourge is serious in China,” he observed. The execution could be a warning to the Chinese population that no one is exempt from the harshest punishment for running drugs into the country.

The Chinese had no use for the strenuous British protests, which included a “difficult conversation” between Britain's Foreign Minister and the Chinese ambassador.

“We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British accusation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters. “We urge the British side to correct its wrongdoing to avoid causing damages to bilateral relations.”

With its growing international influence as one of the world's most powerful economies, China clearly feels it has little to fear in the way of international sanctions. The government does, however, feel a pressing need to deal harshly both with crime and internal dissent in a country strained by regional, ideological and class tensions On Friday, a Beijing court sentenced dissident writer Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for subversion, despite protests from the United States, the European Union and Canada.

In Mr. Shaikh's case, although the European Union presidency joined Great Britain in condemning the execution “in the strongest terms,” the Canadian reaction was more muted.

“Canada is aware of the recent execution of British national Akmal Shaikh,” said Lisa Monette, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, in an e-mail when asked for a reaction. “Canada encourages the abolition of the death penalty internationally and also advocates full respect for international safeguards where the death penalty is in use.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has in the past been critical of human-rights abuses by the Chinese government, though over the past year the Conservatives have accelerated efforts to forge closer trade ties, with some muting of human-rights concerns.

There was no reaction Tuesday from the U.S. Department of State.

Though Reprieve, an organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty, and other human-rights groups condemned the execution – “China's refusal to even allow a proper medical evaluation is simply disgusting,” said Reprieve's director, Clive Stafford Smith – there is no likelihood of any backlash.

The British acknowledged as much Tuesday. Ivan Lewis, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, called it a “deeply depressing day for anyone with a modicum of compassion or commitment to justice,” but added, “we must and will continue to engage with China.”

The execution, Prof. Burton said, should serve as a warning to any foreigner visiting or living in China that justice in that country can be brutal, capricious and swift, and that foreigners are not protected.

“It's a risky place to live and work in,” he observed.

Mr. Shaikh's trial lasted all of 30 minutes.