The summoning of the Chinese ambassador Fu Ying to the UK Foreign Office in London to explain the execution of British national Akmal Shaikh, sheds light on a growing sense of hypocrisy and double standards running at the heart of British politics and it’s morality.
For years the British Government has stood by in silence whilst the Chinese regime has brutally oppressed people in Tibet, East Turkestan and other remote regions of China. Just earlier this year the Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to be photographed with the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, for fear of upsetting the Chinese Government.
It is sad to think that it takes the death of one British national for our Government to be forced to remind the Chinese of their responsibilities to respect human rights. It was a long overdue reminder, but ultimately a hollow one. The UK Government’s continued silence over China’s human rights record is a crime in itself.