Execution for Corruption, Fair or inhumane?

Question

Okay, I just saw the news about a food and drug agency head director of the people's republic of china was executed in may for taking bribes for fake drugs and food to be distributed on the market. Because of his greed, there were food poisoning ranging from dog food to toothpaste in America for the last few months. There were people that got hurt and animals died of tainted food and other things that came from China.
The Chinese government and the supreme court of China decided that the head director to be executed for "vile crimes that cause extreme harm to society".
Do you think that this is a fair sentence or not, for him?
Do you think that America should take back the bussiness and start making this products at home instead of outsourcing to other countries, even if it means slightly higher prices?
Do you think that America should do the same to congressmen in the US Congress that take bribes, or to Corporate executives like the ENRON case? What do you think?

Answer 1

The decision to bring food and other manufacturing back to America, back to Europe etc. is no longer up to the people in a Democratic fashion, rather it is a combination of the Stock Holders of the companies trying to make maximum profits, and the Congress representatives as influenced by lobbyists from the corporations.

For example, the people want labeling "Made in USA, Made in China, Made in Mexico" etc. so the people can pick and choose the products they buy .... well now it is legal for something to be made in another nation & labeled "Made in USA" and often times when we are shopping around we don't have a choice to get a REAL "Made in USA" product.

Europe in similar situation ... most all USA food products include various genetically engineered additives. Many Europeans want to be able to buy food without this, so they want labels whether or not the food is "natural" or "genetically engineered." US government, backed by its corporate lobbyists, is fiercely fighting this at the WTO.

It was not just America where this stuff was happening, but a whole bunch of nations, and some of them had government systems that did the detective work much faster than USA. I mean weeks before the toothpaste and fish health alerts showed up in USA, I saw where other nations had such health alerts.

We have a similar situation with Mad Cow disease.
In America the dept of government concerned with food safety has multiple roles, one of which is to help the promotion of the sale of US food products to other nations, so any time there is a suspicion of tainted food, that could kill consumers, they have a conflict of interest between really cracking down to make it safe, and covering it up, removing inspections, trying to tell the world that it is really safe.

You might ask another question about this topic, since I consider myself to be quite knowlegeable on Mad Cow, and similar with Sheep, other farm animals, Deer, other wild animals ... in fact there is an epidemic of Mad Deer all across America, which was started by Americans, and this has now got into the food chain for the Bears and other animals for which it can be quite dangerous.

And how about the Killer Bees? They were invented in the American continents. Just like the Mad Deer were invented then let out into the wild.

I am not familiar with the criminal system in China, but in many nations each nation has the right to determine what is a serious enough crime to warrant the death penalty and sometimes in other countries that do not have the death penalty or where it is only for a limited range of crimes that not include this, they think this unreasonable.

Me, I am not convinced that they finding one person to take the blame, then executing that one person, that is going to repair the reputation of a nation that has a long history of similar actions. I think the people in China who started the SARS epidemic, spread it to other nations, covered up what they did, they should get the death sentence, except most of them got it already from SARS.

Where I think resources need to be applied is not in stiffer sentences for corruption like ENRON, but in better investment in catching them. Look at what various agencies like SEC and EEOC need to do their job & what they have .... it is like there is a million suspected instances of wrong doing, and 10 inspectors to check it out, and if they are lucky they collectively will clear a little over 100 cases in a year, by which time there are another million suspected instances of wrong doing.

For the crooks it is a crap shoot if they are going to be caught. ENRON had been doing their thing for a long time, had they only been a wee bit more clever, they would not have gone bankrupt, which led to them being caught, so they would still be doing it, and our enforcement funding would probably not have caught them.

Answer 2

The punsihment was too stiff. For once, Shumer agrees with me. But we don't establish law in China. If that was their law, he knew how things were before he accepted the bribes. What's worse? Execution or spending the rest of one's life in a Chinese gulag?

Answer 3

Trying to poison people with tainted products and someone taking bribes/Enron (for example) are a whole different subject and should be treated as such

Answer 4

What's not fair?
Should have been done to Enron execs & all their families. As well as corrupt politicains. There are a few good things we could learn from China, this is one of them.

Answer 5

I believe in what u say the quicker the better for all of society as a whole. As taxpayers we save, as victims and family members left behind to carry the cross of the perpetrators crime we close a terrible chapter sooner, and as the perpetrator he isn't given the chance to appeal and it will deter future criminals to stop their hideous acts against society. Our judicial system is a joke and the rest of the world is sadly following in our suit.

Answer 6

I think executions are inhumane, but in this case, his actions cost the lives of several of those he swore to protect.

Let's leave China for the Chinese...

Answer 7

Execution is only inhumane if it includes torture - like stoning, for instance. Whether it's fair depends on whether he was genuinely culpable, or just a scapegoat. (So, probably not fair, I'm guessing).

Answer 8

Fair.

Answer 9

The death penalty should only be used in the case of murder.