LONDON — Relatives of a British man executed in China accused Britain on Wednesday of being diplomatically powerless due to its economic dependence on the Asian giant, after Beijing ignored London's clemency appeals.

Two cousins of Akmal Shaikh also accused the West of double standards for citing human rights abuses to justify its invasions of countries such as Afghanistan but failing to take the same approach towards Beijing.

Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three whom supporters say was mentally ill, was executed on Tuesday for drug smuggling despite extensive British ministerial lobbying that continued almost up until his death.

But in a letter to the Guardian newspaper, his cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh lamented the lack of real British influence in the case.

"Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?" they wrote.

"This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world. Their strategy of being shoulder to shoulder with the US in the 'war on terror' has not given them the status they so desperately desire."

The cousins noted that "one of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is 'human rights violations'."

"If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren't they, too, invaded? This is purely to do with the fact that China is a powerful country economically.

"Britain's economic dependence far outweighs these 'individual cases'."

Shaikh was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi in far western China with four kilograms (nine pounds) of heroin, but campaigners say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs.

He was the first national from a European Union country to be executed in China in 50 years, according to London-based charity Reprieve, which had been providing him with legal counsel.

China's ambassador Fu Ying was hauled into the Foreign Office hours after the execution on Tuesday to be told of Britain's anger, in what was described as a "difficult" meeting.

Junior foreign minister Ivan Lewis -- who had already summoned the Chinese envoy once on Monday in a last-ditch appeal for clemency -- said afterwards that Shaikh's death was "totally unacceptable."

But in Beijing officials insisted that Shaikh's legal rights had been fully protected, while a foreign ministry spokeswoman expressed "strong dissatisfaction and opposition to Britain's accusations."

Britain has vast trade and economic ties with China, and has long underlined the need to engage closely with the emerging global powerhouse despite criticism notably of China's human rights record.

But ties have long been complicated, and tensions were highlighted at this month's Copenhagen climate summit where environment minister Ed Miliband said China had led a group of countries that "hijacked" the negotiations.

In a commentary on the Shaikh case the Times said that Britain's "diplomatic failure" was forcing a rethink of strategy towards China.

"After the Copenhagen debacle this month and the execution of the first citizen of a European country by China since 1951, Britain is now reassessing how to handle China diplomatically," it said.

In both cases London has "considerably overestimated its leverage with the emerging superpower... A wholesale change of direction is ruled out but senior government figures admit to feeling shaken by the twin failures," it added.

Wow, this story just saddens this really does remind of appeasement against Hitler which obviously didn't work but to a lesser extent of course.

The UK is useless diplomatically (and politically) anyway. Brown thinks he can influence the world, when he can't get his country to vote for him.

We aren't an economic power, save for the undue respect we get from when we were. We are in so much debt that not even optimistic propaganda-level predictions can forsee us with a balanced budget; our economy is all based on hollow consumer spending but we produce nothing of value except for financial services which have collapsed. Our government is unpopular but has refused to hold any elections until the last possible moment, while introducing stupid and unpopular policies(such as handing the music and film industry £1b to cut off the internet access of 'file sharers' while hoping to get the money back in increased VAT from music/film sales (which will fail)). The first thing they have promised to cut, instead of peripheral services, is higher education funding at a time when education is all that will save us from future economic disasters.

I hate living in Britain.

Britain is domed?

Don't worry, Britania will prevail

Oh wait... that's America... well, actually, they're the British that got kicked off the island after Napoleon took it over, and went to America, after supressing the rebellion there... whatever, I don't even know where the fucking backstory came from. Eh, now I feel like posting a Napoleon video.

This shows how market economics can't work for "super powers" like Britian, and now countries like Brazil and China are finally reaping the profits of it.

As you said it's just plain depressing living in this country, I don't see it getting any better diplomatically and political the first chance I get I will move out.

This story will soon be forgotten, feel sorry for his family that had to see him die.

Communism is a dirty word in the U.S. but you wouldn't know that from the amount of Chinese goods bought there. Imagine back in the 80s if businessmen in the U.S. tried to push Soviet made goods on the population or worse yet export U.S. jobs to there. It seems like morals get thrown out the window by many countries when they don't feel immediately threatened and can make money off other people without the same rights and freedoms.

Of course you'll get some people that will argue that China isn't really communist or that trading with them will help promote freedom in China but then how come it seems to be a pick and choose when it comes to which countries get that kind of leeway? Even the news seems to do similar things. We hear far more about what goes on in Iran than we do in Saudi Arabia which is just as strict with their people.

Same here. I hate living in Britain.

We're just a country which keeps giving away our power both economically and politically without even putting up a fight. The reason we're losing all of this power is our own greed. In the eternal search for cheaper and cheaper business costs we have managed to move our primary and secondary industries overseas. We don't produce any raw materials and we don't manufacture anything because countries like China undersell us, and we just let them. Our tertiary economy is what is keeping the country afloat and with the UK banking industry rapidly collapsing I don't see that supporting us for much longer.

Outsourcing our industry is going to bankrupt us (well, more bankrupt than we already are). Each year we export ~$442Bn whilst we import ~$621Bn, that means each year we are losing ~$179Bn mostly because we outsource our industry abroad because it is easier and cheaper to import goods.

The UK seriously needs to reconsider how we approach the economy, we can't just give our money away. We have to start producing something, we have to start producing raw materials, we have to start manufacturing goods, We have to start exporting more than we are importing... we have to start reversing the trend.

...

As for education. The good news is that the government has committed to increase the science budget over the next four years, which isn't hard as it is pitiful in the first place (0.5% GDP). But I doubt that as a nation we are competent enough to actually pull it off. As you said they are cutting the education budget and we are in desperate need of scientists as it is. A large science budget is no good if you don't have any scientists.

Looks like it's time for another Opium War. That'll send 'em a message. You execute one of ours, we'll take Hong Kong back again.

But seriously, i think this incident reflects more poorly on China than on Britain, that they stubbornly insisted on executing a man who quite clearly had mental problems for Opium trafficking, which makes them look bad on three points: that they widely practice capital punishment, that they're not willing to give clemency for mental health, and that they're willing to apply capital punishment for drug trafficking (which i know certainly isn't the case in America).

You have to look at it more as the Chinese being too stubborn to cooperate with western norms, rather than as Britain being powerless.

Wow, reading all of this doom and gloom about the U.K. makes America's situation seem cheerful by comparison. Thanks guys, I needed that.

not to worry,we still have one of the best armed forces and certainly the best special forces...next time those chinese try and excecute an Briton,just call Andy Mcnab and his pals...