British man faces execution in China :Urgent Appeal.

I'm sorry but everyone is to some extent responsible for their actions, how he got himself into the drug situation I don't know.

Go to bed Americanne

"It appears that he was severely delusional at the time of his alleged offence, believing himself to be a world-famous pop star, and that drug smugglers took advantage of his confused state by promising him super-stardom in China."

this thread has gone on toooo long, he's probably dead now anyway much to flugestuge's delight I'm sure.....

Well, reducing the number of drug smugglers in the world is a desirable outcome.

EDIT: And a death penalty for drug smuggling possession?! That's absurd. How, in any possible manner or way, can smuggling having a drug into another country concern being sentenced to death?

Fix'd

shouldn't have been smuggling drugs.

Serves him right.

A lot of people here are saying that chinese law should be respected.

I find fault with that reasoning because personally - I don't think the chinese government should be acknowledged in that sense. It is not elected, it is corrupt, and it is evil (literally evil in the way that it treats some of its own citizens). It is effectively a country run by a power-crazed gang of corrupt old men in it for the money.
It would be like saying "well that kid walked into the bullies corner so he should follow those rules - which clearly state kids with glasses get beaten to ****"
Why respect the rules of bullies?

The only reason why our government should "respect" china is because it would be diplomatically stupid not to (in terms of avoiding conflict/war, trade, and global targets). But we should sure as hell protect our own citizens to the best extent that we can against the Chinese "government"'s barbarism - because it has no authority to set laws.

and yet virtually every single prime minister (excluding the present one of course) in the UK has been to Oxbridge.

elites holding power can still occur in the west but in more subtle ways.

It is arrogant to claim that our laws are better than theirs because we are a democracy. If we were a true democracy then parliament would much better reflect society in terms of its make-up, prime ministers would not generally be white/ male/ oxbridge educated and we would have a very different political system.

The majority of UK citizens favour capital punishment anyway so it's arguably undemocratic that we don't have it here.

I don't think the chinese government should be acknowledged in that sense. it is corrupt, and it is evil (literally evil in the way that it treats some of its own citizens). It is effectively a country run by a power-crazed gang of corrupt old men in it for the money.

Why do you have a problem with all the PM's coming from two of the best universities in the world? I'd say it generally makes them more qualified.

Not to mention, Gordon Brown went to the University of Edinburgh.

Have you read the article or anything in this thread?

yes and I still think drug smugglers should be executed.

The effects of the worst drugs like heroin and even coke to an extent is so bad that there should be a strictly zero tolerance approach. It shouldn't matter if you are mentally disabled or not.

He clearly knew that smuggling drugs was illegal and therefore has no excuses.

I'm generally quite liberal on drugs: I wouldn't mind if ecstasy was legalised because I actually personally think and a lot of my friends who do e and weed would agree, that ecstasy is a lot less dangerous than weed in terms of problems with its use but it is a class A drug because it is a chemical drug not a plant. Weed actually does far more to mess up society than ecstasy.

However having said that smuggling any illegal drug (even if I believe that particular drug should be legal) should be an unpardonable offence simply because it supports a dreadful ghastly illegal business which increases crime rates the world over, it funds terrorist organisations in Afghanistan who grow poppies and generally is very negative for societies everywhere.

China's legal system can't cope with all of the drug smugglers that it catches, so its only option as a deterrent is to sporadically execute those it manages to catch. Ideally they would be locked away for life, but China simply doesn't have the resources to manage this and ensure that drug smugglers particularly of other nationalities, can't just bribe their way out of jail.

I don't considering I go to one of the best universities in the world too, but similarly it is very undemocratic and the OP was arguing that China was wrong to execute a British man because the system is so corrupt and undemocratic.

Surely if we live in a completely pluralist society then the vast majority of prime minister shouldn't have come from Oxbridge?

Their laws are morally insufficient. It's unjust to force any human being to follow them. It's quite a shame we are no longer living in the 19th century and cannot carry out punitive retaliation for the murder of one of our citizens, so we sadly have to let this pass. If the Chinese want to live in an international community they ought to face up to the fact its unacceptable to go around killing other people's citizens.