Today, China executed Zheng Xiaoyu, the former director of the nation’s food and drug administration. He had been convicted of receiving cash bribes for approving fake medications. The death sentence, which seems quite severe to most of us in the West, is actually rather extreme even for China. The decision to use the death penalty in this case was likely the result of several recent and well-publicized food scares, including the massive pet food recall that took place over the past few months.
When viewed in light of some of the official punishments carried out in England under the reign of Elizabeth I, China’s execution of the corrupt food and drug official may not seem so horrible after all. While pointing to more than 300 human heads that were stuck on pikes on London Bridge, Elizabeth once told a French official:
“It is thus we punish traitors in England.”
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