Human Rights - Death Penalty

Treatment of Aliens

Rejecting pleas for clemency from the British PM Gordon Brown and the accused's family and human rights groups, China executed Akmal Shaikh, a British national who smuggled nine pounds of heroin into Urumqi. His family and human rights advocates maintained that Akmal Shaikh suffered from "some form of delusional psychosis", while at the same time expressing complete faith in his sanity when he claimed that he was duped into carrying the heroin by a drug gang. Among the evidence that appeared to have convinced Her Majesty's Government of Akmal Shaikh's feeblemindedness was his song, promoting global harmony, that read in part, "Come, little rabbit, come and play/Come, little rabbit, let us sing”, which, one might say, appears perfectly likely to be part of a speech of Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck.

The Chiense Government, after making some ludicrous remarks on the matter before, contended that the case had been handled according to Chinese law, without explaining, however, why Chinese courts did not bother to give a psychiatric examination of Akmal Shaikh, which could have easily addressed most of the criticisms.

Climate Change

After British secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband accused China had sabotaged a legally binding agreement during the Copenhagen climate change summit, a Chinese FM spokeswoman rejected the assertion as an attempt to avoid the obligations of developed nations by sowing discord among poorer countries. Miliband later said, ""The most important thing for a country like China is to persuade them that they have nothing to fear from a legal treaty."

Trade

The WTO appellate body upheld a panel ruling against China's restrictions on imports of US films and music, rejecting China's argument that the restrictions were necessary to protect public morals. The decision did not challenge China's right to censor foreign films and publications.

See previous post.

Human Rights - Refugees

Extradition

After 22 Uighurs entered Cambodia from China with the aid of an underground network of Christian missionaries in China, a Chinese FM spokeswoman the Uighurs were being investigated for criminal activities. Later, in defiance of the US objections and despite claims of the Uighurs that they feared long jail terms or even the death penalty, Cambodia deported 20 Uighurs to China one day before Vice President Xi Jinping was due to visit Cambodia. Tow days later, China (shockingly) signed a package of business deals worth US$ 1.2 billion with Cambodia.

Climate Change

After bringing the Copenhagen climate talks to a standstill for a week by resisting international verification, claimed to be an affront to national sovereignty, China finally joined four other major nations (US, India, Brazil and South Africa) to an accord that sets a goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by 2050. The accord, which was not a legally binding treaty and sets no goal for concluding a binding international treaty, was later presented to other participants in the summit who grudgingly "take note" of the agreement. The accord was only reached after China inexplicably sent two lower-level officials to meet with US President Barack Obama, prompting Obama to break into a meeting of Premier Wen Jiabo and the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa, which led to the conclusion of the agreement.

Climate Change

China played the role of naysayer very well at at the Copenhagen climate summit, as the China-led Group of 77 countries raised repeated objections to what they see as the economic and environmental tyranny of the industrial world. China invoked procedural grounds to reject an attempt by the Danish presidency to put forward draft outcome texts, which the Chinese delegate called "some texts from the sky". China also opposed the carbon tariffs proposed by some unnamed "individuals and international organizations".

Cultural Property

A group of Chinese "experts" put up a political show of a trip to the US to "trace and document relics looted from the Old Summer Palace", although there is admittedly scant legal basis for repatriation of the relics and there continued to be destruction and loss of historic and archaeological relics across China.

Diplomatic Relations

Vice-President Xi Jinping met Japanese Emperor Akihito after a row broke out over protocol for his hastily arranged meeting. The Hatoyama Government extended special treatment by allowing Xi to meet the emperor on notice much shorter than the normally required one-month, causing criticisms from Japan's opposition party.

Climate Change

During the climate change negotiations at the Copenhagen summit, China refused to accept international monitoring of its emissions levels, maintaining that China’s laws would guarantee compliance. As the US climate change negotiator declared that "[no] public funds, certainly not from the US, [is] going to China", China quickly changed its propaganda headline from ""for the sake of humanity, the Copenhagen conference must succeed" to a much less inspiring "We must work together for the sake of humanity". Meanwhile, China was clearly installed as the leader of the developing countries bloc, forcing African countries to break from a group of "most vulnerable countries" after Tuvalu, much to China's dismay, called for discussions on a legally binding amendment to the Kyoto Protocol that would set targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for major emerging economies including China.

Human Rights

Treaty - Reservation

Hong Kong

Stephen Lam Sui-lung, the constitutional affairs chief of Hong Kong, said a reservation made by the British colonial government when it ratified ICCPR in 1976 still applies and as a result the definition of "universal and equal" suffrage does not apply to Hong Kong.

Use of Force - Peacekeeping

China deploys about 2,150 military and police personnel in UN peacekeeping missions in 10 countries, more troops and police than the US, UK and Russia combined. But China has refused to lend support to NATO-led missions, such as the war in Afghanistan, and denied a group of Mongolian trainers passage through China en route to Afghanistan in October 2009 until ammunition was taken off the plane.

Climate Change

The UN Board in charge of the CDM suspended approvals for about 50 Chinese wind farms amid suspicions that those projects did not meet the requirement of additionality as the Chinese Government may have deliberately lowered subsidies to make the projects eligible for funding. China now has almost half of the total carbon credits issued under the CDM programme.