The Western Neo-Colonial Discrimination against Non-Western Laws
Yet, when Chinese nationals travel to Western countries, can they expect or demand “clemency” when they are in legal trouble with Western legal systems? Can China condemn Western countries whenever Chinese nationals are arrested under Western laws in the West and are not given any clemency? Bluntly speaking, the West would not give a damn to any clemency towards any Chinese nationals (and would strongly regard any demand like this as a blatant interference with its legal systems).
For instance, Haisong Jiang, a Chinese doctoral student in a joint molecular biosciences program at Rutgers University, was arrested in the U.S. on January 8, 2010, after he unwittingly “breached security” by bypassing a Newark Airport terminal without security screening in order “to bid his girlfriend goodbye” inside the terminal and now “faces a trespassing charge and a fine,” as reported by David Porter for the Associated Press on January 9, 2010.
Yet, can China ask for “clemency” with the U.S. legal system for his release? No, of course not, the law should be obeyed in the U.S., regardless of nationality. Even worse, there are people in higher authority in the U.S. who asked for harsher punishment against Jiang, with no mercy at all. For instance, “New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, who was briefed on the arrest,…expressed anger” and strongly asked that the charges and punishment against Jiang “should be much harsher,” as reported by Porter.
These three cases as described here, namely, the ones concerning Google, the British woman, and Mr. Shaikh, are by no mean exhaustive (as there can be many other cases like this) but suffice to illustrate the important point of how much non-Western laws are often treated with condescension and discrimination by Westerners while being in the Non-West, in a way that they do not reciprocate the same treatment to non-Westerners who are in the West and are in trouble with Western laws.
There is a pervasive (often publicly unspoken) racist and ethnocentric discrimination against non-Western laws by Western nationals, as a long historical legacy of Western colonialism in the Non-West during much of the modern era. This colonial legacy of Western superiority complex has not disappeared but transforms itself into a neo-colonial character in our time, often hidden behind the slogans of “human rights,” “freedom,” “clemency,” and the like.
One major consequence is that Westerners can go to any place in the Non-West and, when in legal trouble with local laws, often expect the preferential treatment of not being prosecuted and of being released, with such excuses as “clemency,” “human rights,” “freedom,” and the like, in a way that they do not reciprocate the same preferential treatment to non-Westerners who are in legal trouble in the West. In fact, these non-Westerners are, more often than not, suffer from pervasive discrimination in Western societies, to the extent that not only they are not given any “clemency” but also they often receive harsher punishment than otherwise.
Thus are the Western neo-colonial discrimination against non-Western laws -- and its inhumane consequence in our time.
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About the Author: Dr. Peter Baofu is the author of 30 books in numerous different fields, in which he proposed 40 new theories in different disciplines for a unified theory of everything. His latest books on world affairs include “The Future of Post-Human War and Peace” (2010, forthcoming), “The Future of Post-Human Law” (2010, forthcoming), “Beyond the World of Titans, and the Remaking of World Order” (2007), “The Rise of Authoritarian Liberal Democracy” (2007), the 2 volumes of “Beyond Democracy to Post-Democracy” (2005), “Beyond Capitalism to Post-Capitalism” (2004), “The Future of Capitalism and Democracy” (2002), and the 2 volumes of “The Future of Human Civilization” (2000).
