An opinion piece from Australia’s ABC News looks at global reactions to China’s execution of British citizen Akmal Shaikh:
As they engage in a diplomatic two step, it’s Britain that should be careful about stepping on China’s toes. The ratio of total bilateral trade in goods between China and the UK is currently almost four to one in China’s favour. According to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, UK banks account for close to a quarter of foreign banking in China and the UK is now the biggest European investor in China. It’s the preferred route for British companies to get a foothold in the country’s burgeoning services market.
So it’s not surprising that while Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis was “sick in the stomach” over Akmal Shaikh’s death by lethal injection he also said he was “not going to make idle threats…this is not the time for a knee-jerk reaction. It’s true we must and will continue to engage with China”.
In a letter to The Guardian newspaper Amina and Ridwan Shaikh, Akmal Shaikh’s cousins, said Britain had failed to take action against the government in Beijing because “China is a powerful country economically. One of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is ‘human rights violations’. If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren’t they too invaded? Britain’s economic dependence far outweighs these ‘individual cases’.”
Der Spiegel rounds up responses to Shaikh’s execution in the German media.
See reactions to Shaikh’s execution from Chinese netizens and media, via Global Voices and the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, the Times is reporting that four more foreigners may also be facing execution in China for drugs-related offenses.
