China Vs Thailand Response To Road Outrages

On Tuesday morning, a 21-year-old student was executed in China after he was convicted of stabbing a peasant woman to death as the result of a traffic accident. Yao Jiaxin accidently hit the woman who was riding a bicycle in the city of Xian and then stabbed her to death for fear she would report him.

See:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/china/2011-06/08/content_12655374.htm

It just got me to thinking. While China is rightly criticized for its human and personal rights policies, there is indeed the notion that peasants do have the same rights as others, especially in extreme cases. Apparently the boy is the son of a government official and still paid the ultimate price.

While I am not proposing that the death penalty is good, I did think about the horrific traffic crimes in Thailand (underage girl who caused the deaths in the van, Lao girl cut in half by a Porsche) and how the well-connected weasel out of responsibility over and over.