Treatment of Aliens

Despite appeals for clemency from Manila, China had set the execution date for three Filipino drug traffickers who are set to be executed on 30 March in Xiamen and Shenzhen.

Treatment of Aliens

After Philippine President Benigno Aquino said he would ask President Hu Jintao to commute the death sentences and after the Philippines' vice-president flew to Beijing in a last-minute bid to seek clemency, China postponed the execution date for three Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking.

Treatment of Aliens

A week after Google complained about China's internet censorship and threatened to quit China a FM spokesman said "[f]oreign companies in China should respect the laws and regulations, respect the public interest of Chinese people and China's culture and customs and shoulder due social responsibilities", clearly implying that Google would have to continue self-censoring its Chinese-language search engine if it wanted to keep doing business in China.

Treatment of Aliens

Death Penalty

Akmal Shaikh, 53, was arrested in September 2007 at an airport in Urumqi for carrying a suitcase containing 4 kg of heroin and was sentenced to death in October 2008 by a Urumqi court, becoming reportedly the first British citizen to be executed in China. British officials and human rights groups, apparently convinced that Mr. Shaikh was psychotic, have worked to save his life, pointing to his outlandish statements as convincing proof of his insanity, eg "I am the chosen one here to deliver world peace,... All I know is that Abraham has shown me my home in seventh heaven and I have met all the prophets.” Of course, by that standard, many British and American celebrities should long have been committed to asylum. (Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck come easily to mind.)

Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese FM spokesman, responded that China's Supreme People's Court is reviewing the sentence, but stupidly added that translation service had been provided to the accused and that the accused had said that he and his family members had no history of mental diseases. Someone needs to tell Mr. Ma and his colleagues that no one with half a brain would care about what the accused said when that man's sanity is in question, nor would a Chinese translation make any difference!

Treatment of Aliens

The unfolding legal drama of the Rio Tinto spying case saw a sensational report on a Chinese website affiliated with the State Secrets Bureau that claimed that the British-Australian mining giant engaged in commercial espionage for at least six years, costing China about $100 billion (a figure based on a calculation according to which China should have received all her iron ore imports in the past six years virtually for free). Perhaps realising that the report was too bad to be true, the Bureau announced shortly that it had not authorised anyone to release comments on the case. While the state secret charges sent chills down the spines of multinational executives doing business in China, the Chinese prosecutors suddenly dropped the much more ominous charges of stealing state secrets against the four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, and would instead pursue charges of commercial bribery and trade secrets infringement. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd cautioned China to deal fairly, openly and judiciously with the accused because the world would be watching how she handled the case.

Treatment of Aliens

While bribery cases involving transnational corporations in China were reportedly on the rise, a senior Chinese diplomat made some pointed remarks on the industrial spying case against an Australian executive for Rio Tinto. Although he appealed Australian critics to wait for the facts to come to light, saying, "[i]t is not up to me ... to say what the law requires and what the law permits", he was nevertheless quite sure that "[t]he facts of the case would constitute a violation of Australian laws were the facts (to) happen here in Australia."

Treatment of Aliens

An FM spokesman dismissed as "noise" pleas by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other Australian officials for fairness and transparency in dealing with the four employees of Rio Tinto, one of whom is an Australian citizen, who had been detained on suspicion of stealing state secrets. Later, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the cases would be handled "quickly", and urged Australian to respect China's judicial sovereignty.