China has told Japan that Beijing will execute, as early as next Monday, a Japanese man convicted of attempting to smuggle stimulant drugs

China has told Japan that Beijing will execute, as early as next Monday, a Japanese man convicted of attempting to smuggle stimulant drugs from China to Japan in 2006, Japanese government sources said Tuesday.If the convict is executed, it will be the first execution by China of a Japanese national since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972.The execution may affect bilateral relations, which recently have moved in a positive direction following the detention by Chinese authorities of a Chinese man for allegedly poisoning frozen dumplings that made 10 people ill in Japan from late 2007 to early 2008.According to sources close to both sides, Beijingconveyed its decision to execute the Japanese national to Tokyo on Monday, three days after it informed the Japanese government of the detention of the suspect in the dumplings case. "The timing makes it difficult for Japan to object," one of the sources said.In late December last year, China executed a British man convicted of smuggling drugs into the country, but it drew strong criticism from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and human rights groups.Critics said China had been careful about executing foreigners, especially those from developed countries, but given the country's rising clout in the world economy and its hard-line policy against crime, Beijing may have decided to apply the same capital punishment guidelines to foreigners as those for Chinese citizens.In July last year, Japan executed a Chinese national convicted of killing three of his compatriots in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1999.The Japanese man was arrested in September 2006 for attempting to smuggle stimulant drugs totaling about 2.5 kilograms from the Dalian airport to Japan, according to the sources close to the bilateral

You Might Also Like :