(The Great Firewall of China-Information-FILTRATION NATION Shangay, China Photo by: lifemage / Flickr) China announced this morning at 10.30am local time (2.30 am in England) the execution by lethal injection of a British citizen of Pakistani origin, Akmal Shaikh, 53. The execution took place in Urumqi (Xinjiang region, north-west of the state), after the final assessment by the Supreme Court of China. Prosecutors charged the man for international drug trafficking: Akmal had indeed been arrested in September 2007 on a plane departed from Tajikistan, due to the discovery of 4.03 kg of heroin in his suitcase: whereas the permissible limit is 50g, this quantity possessed by the man, according to Chinese laws, could be the cause about 26,000 deaths. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, from the words of the spokeswoman Jiang Yu, said: "China and EU's legal structures may be different, but this should not undermine the mutual respect between our relations" and added: "Nobody has the right to judge the judicial sovereignty of our country"; she also expressed strong dissatisfaction against the British accusations. Relatives of the victim, father of three and resident of Kentish Town (North London), stated that the man was in a state of deep depression, a serious mental illness that led him to be convinced by deception to traffic cocaine: Shaikh also discovered only yesterday, by his two cousins, he would be executed the next day. The UN spokesman Philip Alston said that, according to their information, the interrogation would last no longer than 30 minutes: a time therefore insufficient to represent a concrete proof of guilt. Shaikh's execution, the first against a European citizen since 1951 (when the Italian Antonio Riva was executed, along with the Japanese Ruic Yamaguchi for an alleged plot against the government in Beijing) led inside the Western public opinion a strong indignation. In a statement released this morning by Downing Street, Gordon Brown said he felt totally outraged, condemning the act of the Chinese authorities, which did not care about the foreign pressure that tended to emphasize the psychological problems of man: Ivan Lewis, the English Minister for Foreign Affairs, said this morning on "Radio 4's Today” that this day is of deep depression and dismay for anyone in the world: regrettable is how a country could go forward without a shred of compassion or any kind of medical assessment towards a sick man: "This performance makes me personally feel a great pain in the stomach, but I will not just sit and listen: this is unacceptable". The British Foreign Secretary also summoned the Chinese ambassador in London, Fu Ying, to stress their condemnation of this execution, carried out despite the requests for clemency made by the London government and the victims' families. As already noted in a previous article, European and, in this case, primarily British authorities, have once again underlined their strong voice of condemnation, saying that a strong and sincere dialogue with China does not mean a passive acceptance of their bad treatment of human rights, which goes against all international laws and it is not acceptable in the 21st century. Civil rights' lawyer Teng Biao confirmed that in China the judiciary system is not independent, but totally controlled by the government. "What really scared us" said Roseann Rife, deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Program of Amnesty International “is that authorities mitigated circumstances as provided for in Chinese law in cases of mental illness". Harsh reaction from the Chinese Foreign Minister, who asked UK to take a step back to avoid creating tensions between London and Beijing. But China can not continue to ignore the calls from International countries, and the EU should make it clear they no longer prepared to descend to this kind of compromise. China will continue to be respected as an international power only adapting theirs behaviour to international standards on human rights as a priority. In a context of international interdependence, we need mutual respect, but also and above all, mutual expectations of improvement by both sides and once again China has been strict to persist in its personal political repression.