The first European Citizen to be executed in China for over 50 years, TBH I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned here yet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8433704.stm

China's actions are, frankly, disgusting. Even ignoring the fact that China neglected to assess this man's mental state, the execution of a human being is never acceptable. The death penalty is inhumane and it's barbaric, the Chinese government has committed yet another crime against humanity today.

TBH I'm hoping for EU-wide sanctions against China for their outrageous behaviour.

I'm generally in agreement with that.

Anyone know how many people America has executed recently? I did find this list of those on death row who were exonerated, some posthumously. There were 9 this year which seems quite a few:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ex ... #2000-2009

Part of me thinks we should all protest by not buying anything made in China. Then I realise the shops would be completely empty.

I think we should just accept it's happened, express our displeasure, and move on. There's no use crying over two years of spilt milk, is there?

If he was stupid enough to bring heroin into their country on false premises, he deserves everything he gets.

Wahoo, here's to commenting from a position of ignorance.

It's a fair comment, everyone knows you don't f u c k with the Wongs.

Like the article says the British Government could've done a secret deal if it wanted to save the guy.

What surprised me was that he was arrested 2 years ago, yet all this stuff only erupted when he was condemned to death. What happened in the intervening time?

And everyone knows that you don't go executing people with serious mental health issues.

It would have been nice to see if he had or not, we can't really determine that from him making one video.

Your comment could be equally directed at America but it seems because that's the US then that's just dandy.

No, how America can describe itself as the "leader" of the free world and simultaneously sanction murder conducted by the state is seriously questionable. What is especially disconcerting is the number of people in the USA who receive posthumous pardons. The death penalty is never acceptable.

I agree with that.

It is funny how situations are perceived. I mean, if a suicide bomber suffers from mental health issues I imagine not many would lose sleep over their death, admittedly self-inflicted.

However, if this person had mental health issues, there's an outcry about him being executed for trafficking heroin which, the Chinese calculated, could cause 20,000+ deaths and affect huge numbers of families.

I know this was State sanctioned but there is alot of hypocrisy in the "West" when it comes to morality. Look at the hundreds of thousands of innocents we've killed in Iraq...

Perception is an odd thing. Just an observation.

True, let's call it "Daily Mail syndrome", better known as hypocrisy. Although to be fair I don't know many people who actually agree with the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, so I'd love to know where the government get their public support figures from.

True. If TB had made it known that he would solely go into Iraq for Regime change then he, hopefully, wouldn't have got the support.

I'm still unsure why, when that's all that's happened, he hasn't be carted off to stand trial in the Hague as International Law states that Regime change is not a legal basis for war.

Back to topic, perhaps China with their long memory, decided they didn't want the UK pedaling drugs in their back yard, even on an individual basis. Last time they tried to stop us doing that we took Hong Kong off them...

*shurgs*

I have no problem with the notion of the death penalty itself, it only starts to fall down for me when you get to dodgy cops and trials, questionable forensic evidence, fake witnesses and experts, government by media whim etc