Healthy Choices in China

Sunday was the UN-sponsored "International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking." The theme was "Value yourself...make healthy choices." Here's how China celebrated:

In China, still conditioned by the awareness that opium ravaged previous generations and opened the door to foreign imperialists, the Government marked anti-drug day by executing dozens of traffickers.

In the southern city of Guizhou, 24 people were convicted of trafficking over the weekend, and five were immediately executed with a bullet in the neck, according to official media.

Comments

xray | June 28, 2005, 11:48am | #

A bullet in the neck? That doesn't sound like the most efficient way to impose Chinese justice. Sounds messy.

Rick Hall | June 28, 2005, 11:55am | #

Well, those people won't be making any more unhealthy choices. Here's to your health!

The Chinese Mr. Macky | June 28, 2005, 12:01pm | #

??????????? ? ??. ??.

(Drugs are bad. Um-kay.)

ralphus | June 28, 2005, 12:05pm | #

Damn! The post wouldn't accept my carefully researched Chinese characters. Thus ruining my moderately hilarious Chinese Mr. Macky joke.

Shelby | June 28, 2005, 12:13pm | #

five were immediately executed with a bullet in the neck

Their appeals are pending.

raymond | June 28, 2005, 12:20pm | #

I wonder if firing squads will be an Olympic event in 2008.

gaius marius | June 28, 2005, 12:29pm | #

bush must be jealous.

isildur | June 28, 2005, 12:36pm | #

xray, the efficiency comes later, when they charge the next of kin of the executed person for the bullet.

gene | June 28, 2005, 1:14pm | #

Where is the outrage from all the liberal/progressives??

All any state in the USA has to do is think of the death penalty or even a handslap and the news/articles are in bold type. China, France, Zimbabwa, anywhere else gets a pass. Oh well, life is not fair but at least in the States we live.

zach | June 28, 2005, 1:22pm | #

gene, in china it's OK because it's their culture.

SR | June 28, 2005, 1:26pm | #

Uh, sorry to spoil your righteous indignation, but groups like Amnesty International do protest the death penalty in China and other nations. It just doesn't get much publicity here because criticism of American governmental bodies will always receive more coverage in the American press under general "hometown" reporting principals.

wataazu | June 28, 2005, 1:30pm | #

People trafficking low quality drugs should be beaten to death with a rubber hose. It's disgraceful.

gene | June 28, 2005, 1:33pm | #

"Uh, sorry to spoil your righteous indignation"
You my friend are a bit of a bigot.

The criticism of the USA is not "hometown" it is in every news source I have access to and with the internet that is a wide group.

raymond | June 28, 2005, 1:42pm | #

All any state in the USA has to do is think of the death penalty or even a handslap and the news/articles are in bold type. China, France, Zimbabwa, anywhere else gets a pass.

France? Capital punishment?

Sorry. In that, at least, France is civilised.

raymond | June 28, 2005, 1:45pm | #

And btw. Amnesty protests the death penalty in China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the US, the Sudan, Iran... ALL those kinds of country.

SR | June 28, 2005, 1:51pm | #

gene, I'm curious as to how my pointing out that you and zach are inaccurately accusing liberal/progressive groups of ignoring the death penalty in other countries constitutes "bigotry". (Defined as "One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.")

xray | June 28, 2005, 1:54pm | #

Yeah, SR please stop oppressing the righteously indignant by spoiling their misconceptions. Your bigotry is so obvious.

zach | June 28, 2005, 2:02pm | #

hey buddy, i was just kidding. i couldn't make the "bigotry" connection either.

cdunlea | June 28, 2005, 4:43pm | #

Where is the outrage from all the liberal/progressives??

Well, this one is glad that someone doesn't want to spend millions of dollars every year keeping people in prisons on the taxpayers' dime.


LOL

village idiot | June 28, 2005, 5:01pm | #

Do those guys get duck sauce with their noodles?

B.P. | June 28, 2005, 5:34pm | #

Bullett in the neck... I think Taiwan's chances of winning the impending war just edged up a bit.

Jadagul | June 28, 2005, 6:29pm | #

Actually, there's a pretty good reason why it's a bullet to the neck (though I thought it was generally to the head). As I understand it, China sells the organs of executed criminals for transplant. The ideal cause-of-death from an organ-harvesting perspective is trauma to the head. So you shoot the guy in his head, then take his liver, his kidneys, his lungs, his heart...

scape | June 28, 2005, 6:38pm | #

This is your brain.

This is your brain on drugs.

This is your brain on drugs being thrown in front of a firing squad.




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Paul | June 28, 2005, 6:47pm | #

This is all Bush's fault.

Am I the first one to make a GWB reference out of this?

Paul

Paul | June 28, 2005, 6:50pm | #

Where is the outrage from all the liberal/progressives??

[...]China, France, Zimbabwa, anywhere else gets a pass. Oh well, life is not fair but at least in the States we live.


China has no limits to Eminent Domain. Therefore, they get a +50 to their Charisma. Even I admit that's tough to beat.

Paul

s.a.m. | June 28, 2005, 7:37pm | #

Bullets in the back of the neck, yep, that won't stop the demand for illegal drugs either. China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are all reasons why the War on Drugs is a failure. If ruthless capital punishment won't curb the drug flow, NOTHING WILL!!!

Mr. Nice Guy | June 29, 2005, 10:58am | #

I wonder when this effective law-enforcement technique will catch on here. I can see it on the billboards:

"Click it - or - BULLET IN THE NECK"

joe | June 29, 2005, 2:50pm | #

Cartoon bullet in cop hat, with the text: "Captain Necky says, winners don't use drugs!"