First European since 1951

[Mirewen]

I'm going to ask you to read the whole two pages, don't skim because all of it is equally disturbing.

http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/w...-convicted-of-drug-smuggling-despite-uk-pleas

Shaikh, a Pakistan-born former cab company manager, was arrested in 2007 for carrying a suitcase with almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of heroin into China on a flight from Tajikistan. His cousins said he was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams to record a pop song for world peace.

He was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial. China has said there was no proof he was mentally ill, but one of Shaikh's Beijing-based lawyers said Tuesday that the country's highest court never evaluated his client's mental status.

The Xinhua news agency said Shaikh was put to death by lethal injection. Earlier this year, Amnesty International said China executed at least 1,718 people in 2008. The exact number is not known.

The press office of the Xinjiang region where Shaikh had been held confirmed the execution.

The last known European executed in China was Antonio Riva, an Italian pilot who was shot by a firing squad in 1951 after being convicted of involvement in what China said was a plot to assassinate Mao Zedong.

Shaikh's daughter Leilla Horsnell was quoted by the BBC and other British media outlets as saying she was "shocked and disappointed that the execution went ahead with no regards to my dad's mental health problems, and I struggle to understand how this is justice."

 

[Tristam Green]

Long and short of it?

We made them just about invincible. China could seriously trample the rest of the world with impunity, and there isn't a damn thing anyone could do about it, because the Free World enabled it.

 

[Valandil]

Long and short of it?

We made them just about invincible. China could seriously trample the rest of the world with impunity, and there isn't a damn thing anyone could do about it, because the Free World enabled it.

True statement is true.

 

[Mirewen]

I totally agree to that extent. But a couple of the things that bother me;

1. I know they can't just pat him on the head and let him go to the loony bin because that would open the doors to any smuggler to do the same, but no psych tests at all? I know this is China but still, they could have at least ran some tests, 30 minutes in court is entirely unacceptable.

2. The guy was on the streets... but his family came to defend him? He had 3 children? Why the hell would you let your 50+ year old mentally unstable father wander the streets? Maybe if they were there for him he wouldn't have had the opportunity to be conned, he should have been in a housing facility beforehand.

I'm probably giong to look for more stories on this because I've only read 5 seperate articles and they were pretty much identical. There seems to be something missing.

 

[Zyndara]

This is, in fact, pretty frightening news. China holds roughly 20% of the world's population. Their human rights record is pretty disgusting to say the very least. We are in for a long, hard ride if they decide to start swinging their balls around. And make no mistake - it takes balls to demand an apology from the UK for being in an uproar over a man with diminished mental capacity being executed. China's attitude is worse than just so what. It's "fuck you." And that's not good.

Tristam's right though. Collectively the whole world has kind of pooh-poohed China's activities over the years, wagging a disappproving finger and puffing up their chests, but have enabled their behavior with inaction and complicit, relative silence. Unfortunately this isn't by far the first questionable thing they've done and it certainly won't be the last. I agree there's more to this story, but this is the land of censorship and oppression we're talking about. You can bet it's likely we'll never know the truth.

So, show of hands, who wants to visit China?

 

[Tristam Green]

It isn't just complacency or silence - it's with the dishing out of HUGE amounts of money to their manufacturing sites, the borrowing of money from China for debts accrued at home (by many nations), and the overall fear of their population (yes, it is fear).

I've never shown any want to visit China, and I certainly don't want to now.

 

[Zyndara]

Oh yes, absolutely. I didn't mean to discount the various financial ways that they have been encouraged. I just mean that in regards strictly to human rights, they have committed some real atrocities (much worse than this, although executing a person whose mental capacity is questionable is pretty foul), and while there has been some response from various angles, no one has truly stood up to them per se. They are becoming a global force to be reckoned with both financially and ethically that the whole world contributed to. That is a very scary shift of power.

 

[Tristam Green]

Oh yes, absolutely. I didn't mean to discount the various financial ways that they have been encouraged. I just mean that in regards strictly to human rights, they have committed some real atrocities (much worse than this, although executing a person whose mental capacity is questionable is pretty foul), and while there has been some response from various angles, no one has truly stood up to them per se. They are becoming a global force to be reckoned with both financially and ethically that the whole world contributed to. That is a very scary shift of power.

The best part of it all? Economists saw it coming, and praised the shift. "Growth in Asia in Q4 2009!" was the fucking economic buzzword during the summer.

 

[Mirewen]

This is, in fact, pretty frightening news. China holds roughly 20% of the world's population. Their human rights record is pretty disgusting to say the very least. We are in for a long, hard ride if they decide to start swinging their balls around. And make no mistake - it takes balls to demand an apology from the UK for being in an uproar over a man with diminished mental capacity being executed. China's attitude is worse than just so what. It's "fuck you." And that's not good.

Tristam's right though. Collectively the whole world has kind of pooh-poohed China's activities over the years, wagging a disappproving finger and puffing up their chests, but have enabled their behavior with inaction and complicit, relative silence. Unfortunately this isn't by far the first questionable thing they've done and it certainly won't be the last. I agree there's more to this story, but this is the land of censorship and oppression we're talking about. You can bet it's likely we'll never know the truth.

So, show of hands, who wants to visit China?

Well not just that though. They have massive amounts of people fleeing their own country (not that I blame them...) Where I live it is perfectly acceptable to only speak Mandarin or Cantonese and know absolutely no English, which makes my job incredibly hard. Like I said before, there is a couple in one of the buildings that we manage that has been in Canada for over 30 years and they don't speak a word of English. 80% of the population of central Richmond (suburb of Vancouver) is Chinese, they don't have to know any other language.

CIV, StatCan – In Vancouver CMA, just over four out of 10 residents (41%) are allophones... Of these allophones, 332,000, or 38%, have a Chinese language as their mother tongue. People with Chinese as their mother tongues have the highest percentage of them speaking neither English nor French [French being Canada's secondary language], among people with all other mother tongues, Census 2006 finds. CENSUS 2006

I get verbally and physically accosted daily trying to get to work via public transit, just last week an old asian woman (probably 1/2 my height) pushed me from the skytrain right as it was about to go because she wanted to stand where I was standing. I fell, broke my umbrella and my earbuds from my iPod got stuck in the doors, ripping them from my iPod as the train took off. Speaking as someone who lost a friend to the train, I was (understandably) shaken.

When my sister went to Beijing to open the Olympic games, she actually had to lead a seminar on "How to stand in line" because there are no lines there. You want to order a coffee? Be ready to throw some elbows.

That's the thing though, when you come from a country where this is acceptable, it's nothing out of the ordinary. To us this is a horrible thing, but to a country that puts to death more people in one year than every other country combined, they probably don't really see what the big deal is.

About 75% - 80% of my friends are Chinese and all speak English, I have absolutely nothing wrong with immigration as it is a way out for a lot of people (i.e. China to a lot of people) but come on... you have to at least be respectful to the country you move to, at least try.