Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 226 posts

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#61

Post by adventured »

johannkokos wrote: post #50

I am confused by this article. It says, "Schellenberg was arrested in 2014 and received his original sentence in 2016 in a case that went unnoticed." But according to the Chinese court[link 1], he was first sentenced for 15 years in jail on 2018-11-20. Robert appealed to high court. On 2018-12-29, the high court decided the original sentence was too light and asked the intermediate court for a new trial. link 1: http…

He was held for four years before being found guilty, with that first verdict giving him 15 years. Not sure what to make of the 2016 part, I think that refers to the date of his first trial.

Here's what the NY Times has on it:

"Last month, a court ordered Mr. Schellenberg to be retried after he appealed a 15-year prison sentence for smuggling methamphetamines. ... After his arrest [in 2014], Mr. Schellenberg was held for 15 months before his first trial, and it took an additional 32 months before a court declared him guilty and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for his role in a failed attempt to smuggle drugs from China to Australia."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/world/asia/china-canada-s...

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#62

Post by C1sc0cat »

ubercow13 wrote: post #31
CydeWeys wrote: post #4

At this point I think I'm too afraid to ever go to China. You can't get justice there, and you can be swept up into some stupid diplomatic spat. Don't they realize how short-sighted this is? This is incredibly harmful to tourism.

Multiple popular tourist destination countries execute people for drug offences and it doesn't seem to be that big of an issue.

Not white westerners though its like how poor "workers" from other Muslim countries get treated badly compared to western expats on a full ride ticket.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#63

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rando444 wrote: post #17
redleggedfrog wrote: post #5

It's interesting to me how much China is behaving very much like a "gang", like the Crips or Bloods from the 80's. "You take one of ours, we'll grab some of yours." Doesn't matter what the reasons for the grabs are, it's just posturing. It's sad when you're international relations are at the level of hoodlums.

If you read the article, you'll note that he was already arrested and convicted before all of this began. It's his sentencing that is being used to "make an example". Clearly this is done for political reasons to "send a message" .. and judges in the US routinely use sentencing as a means to do the same. The only thing here is the disconnect between the harsh sentencing and the perceived reasons for it. I mean, you'r…

> judges in the US routinely use sentencing as a means to do the same

American judges are fiercely independent. Where “messaging” is concerned it’s within the context of deterring future crime, not messaging to foreign states.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#64

Post by m-p-3 »

dak1 wrote: post #52
eunos wrote: post #24

I do not see the connection between the sentencing and Huawei's case other than the timing.

China took the highly unusual step of inviting western media to the man's appeal trial.

And the resentencing is suspicious.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#65

Post by mikeash »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #46
mikeash wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. In terms of “this has completely ruined my life,” 15 years in a Chinese prison would rate about 9.8 out of 10 for me, while death is 10 out of 10. In terms of balancing the benefits of travel versus the risk of law enforcement misconduct, that additional 0.2 out of 10 makes no noticeable difference.

That is a very uncommon opinion.

Is it really? It seems pretty widely accepted that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime, for example, which indicates that people (well, potential criminals, anyway) don’t see it as substantially worse than a lengthy prison term.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#67

Post by alimbada »

CydeWeys wrote: post #4

At this point I think I'm too afraid to ever go to China. You can't get justice there, and you can be swept up into some stupid diplomatic spat. Don't they realize how short-sighted this is? This is incredibly harmful to tourism.

For a bit of perspective: on the other hand, as a brown Muslim man I won't be going to the US any time soon.

Also won't be going to China either due to their current genocide of the Uyghurs.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#68

Post by bauhw »

CydeWeys wrote: post #4

At this point I think I'm too afraid to ever go to China. You can't get justice there, and you can be swept up into some stupid diplomatic spat. Don't they realize how short-sighted this is? This is incredibly harmful to tourism.

99% of the tourism in China is domestic. Foreigner shouldn't have white cards on the law because of tourism, that's arrogant and unhealthy.

I was afraid of China because of these random news. But when I finally went there in September, I was surprised as all the internet fear mongering was wrong. When you read your local newspaper and see a murder, are you afraid to go out ? No because it's an outlier, as is the case above. I went alone for 1 month in China and felt much safer than in France. But if you plan to go to China to play the game of law for money, then except to lose big. That's why the country feel safe, the risks are huge, that means dissuasion. Avoid political talk and don't be arrogant = 0 issues there.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#69

Post by tanilama »

johannkokos wrote: post #50

I am confused by this article. It says, "Schellenberg was arrested in 2014 and received his original sentence in 2016 in a case that went unnoticed." But according to the Chinese court[link 1], he was first sentenced for 15 years in jail on 2018-11-20. Robert appealed to high court. On 2018-12-29, the high court decided the original sentence was too light and asked the intermediate court for a new trial. link 1: http…

So he smuggled 220kg of meth, while 50g is death penalty in China.

Re: China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

#70

Post by ngokevin »

CydeWeys wrote: post #4

At this point I think I'm too afraid to ever go to China. You can't get justice there, and you can be swept up into some stupid diplomatic spat. Don't they realize how short-sighted this is? This is incredibly harmful to tourism.

As long as you're not an organized drug trafficker.

Also our media is susceptible to surfacing up anti-China pieces so it'll skew perceptions. I think it could be healthy to visit to get a different perspective other than "that evil brainwashed country on the other side" that I feel is very pervasive. It's an interesting place to visit if you feel like you want to go to a different planet. Though the fact people are now getting scared to even visit makes it feel like the Third Red Scare.

Post reply on HN