Wednesday, December 30, 2009

China should review its rocky relations with Britain

By China Watcher

It is always a country prerogative to carry out its own court sentence based on its own laws but the nosy Western media, once again, provides full coverage in its attempt to highlight China’s non respect for Western code of human rights practices. Human Rights organizations of all kinds, like the unknown Reprieve, even jumped onto the bandwagon to try to get into the spotlight.

The rejection of British PM call for clemency is certainly a right move as it goes to show that the Chinese court do not entertain interference from “outsiders” even though they are deemed VVIPs, which to Westerners will always carry some weights. It is good for China to send a clear message to the mainly Western countries and its nosy media that even Western citizens will not be given preferential treatment if there are caught infringing the country’s laws.

The so-called mentally-ill Briton who has been executed by lethal injection, has already been given full access to the Chinese legal system, and he has exhausted every available avenues including the Supreme Court, the highest body to review the case. According to the Chinese, he has failed to prove adequately that he is mentally unstable when he carried out the offence of drug trafficking. I am not a doctor but from my research bi-polar or manic depression is not a mental illness which would bring a person state of consciousness to a low where he does not know what he is doing. From the conversation I gathered through my association with people in the medical line, the state of “highs and lows” in a person can be controlled with proper medication and the person at a certain point of time would be able to realize that he is doing a job which considered illegal.

It is only in the West particularly in Europe which has triggered off protest and also, in one or two pro-Western Asian countries which allowed these media to carry out its news reporting unobtrusively with headline news which would be considered “unfriendly” to China. I am sure you would know which are those countries I am referring to from my earlier articles.

Why is it that China needs to accept Western code of ethics before it can garner respect throughout the world? It had already been “respected” in most Asian and African countries who shared many common bonds of imposing strict laws to curb the many severe crimes in its countries. Is the West respect so important? The media tried to imply that the respect is international. I full disagree. It is only Western or to put it racially “white-man” code of ethics which is not suppose to be a universally accepted stand human rights code for all human beings.The historical issues surrounding the return of Hong Kong to China, the condemnation of China by the British Environment Minister on the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks, the sending of a junior Minister to Tibet to support greater autonomy for the Chinese province all adds to the stickiness of the relationship between the growing world’s power and an ex-colonizer whose international influence is on the decline.

Most Asian countries introduced very tough punishment, including the death sentence, for offences like drugs and kidnapping which had grown quite big and remained as a “sore-thumb” in each country’s government effort to readdress a society where the poverty level is still significant. In fact, most visitors and tourists are provided with clear warning notice that drug trafficking is a capital punishment offence.

Why should China commute the death sentence which has been decided by the higher Court? China should not succumb from the interference especially from the West.

And China should seriously review its existing relations with Britain and possibly, cut down the number of business links with the British.

Bravo, China.