CNJ Comment - Akmal pays the price of history

Main Image : 

THOSE with an intimate knowledge of China would have felt for weeks that there would be a tragic outcome to the fate of Akmal Shaikh (main story).
At this stage we do not know whether the right noises were being made by the Foreign Office following his arrest in China in 2007.
They would have to have been very careful bearing in mind the degree to which China, perhaps more than most other developing countries, jealously guards it sovereignty.
Diplomats would have required a delicate awareness of the sensitivity of the Chinese whose country was so constantly violated by the colonial powers in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Here Britain’s history is pretty shameful. Frequent executions of Chinese by British soldiers took place in China during those turbulent years. Into this charnel house of memories – still resonant in the minds of Chinese officials – fell poor Akmal Shaikh.
If our diplomats and government ministers made quiet overtures for fear of making the Chinese lose face, the moment they went public on Mr Shaikh a few weeks ago his fate was almost sealed.
The Chinese, copying the response of the British government to appeals regarding foreign nationals in our courts, said they could not interfere with their judiciary. This, of course, is nonsense.
Even in our democracy there is often tension between the executive and the judiciary, and it has not been unknown in recent history for our executive to override the judiciary. In China, where the independence of the judiciary is only slowly emerging, there would have been few obstacles for a commutation of his sentence.
Unfortunately, Britain’s influence in China is minimal. Compared to EU countries, particularly Germany, our economic ties with China are in a lower league.
The appalling price was paid by Mr Shaikh.