Crime and Punishment

For those of you that guessed I would write about the traditional, country style wedding mentioned in The Village People entry, you are right. I will write about that, eventually.

For those of you who believe that that experience would be the subject of the next blog, as intimated in the Shi Shou entry, you are not correct.

No, my friends, this topic is much more interesting – to me, anyway. And maybe to you, too. It deals with crime, specifically violent crime and subsequent cover ups in China

I have often stated throughout this blog that I feel safer living in China than I ever did in America. My sheer size, as opposed to the average Chinese, serves as a crime deterrent. I honestly don’t believe any Chinese man or woman would accost or assault me, simply because I am so much bigger than they are. Another deterrent is my ‘foreign-ness’. Generally, unless a foreigner comports him/herself badly, he/she is treated with respect and reverence, and approached with something akin to awe.

There are some foreigners who, by bent of bad behavior, end up on the nasty side of Chinese temper. Usually, those are younger men and/or women, just here for a flash, not truly appreciative of the culture and the social mores of this country in general or the city they live in. Those types of foreigners tend to get beat up. If the police get involved, they tend to be ejected from the country. I believe that, in Nanjing many natives are sick of foreigners and their antics. That is why I was treated less than cordially while there.

Back to the main thought: I have often reported on my feelings of safety while living here. I do feel much safer here than I did while living Stateside, where reports of shootings, stabbings, rapes and theft dominate the news. Here, virtually no one gets shot, to be stabbed the perpetrator has to get close to their victim – not something someone much smaller than me would be likely to undertake. Same thing with rape. Theft is a different story and I am careful with my belongings, but again, being a smiling, inoffensive foreigner who, by the way, is bigger than most of their countrymen, I believe that most Chinese would thieve somebody their own size. So, I feel I have legitimate reason for feeling safe here.

While researching Shi Shou prior to actually going there, I was surprised to find information about the incident I mentioned in the blog entry by the same title. Actually, I was surprised that there was even a Wikipedia entry regarding Shi Shou at all, it being such a small village. Imagine my surprise when I read the details of what took place there, just 3 years ago.

One could say that the government is the largest syndicated crime operation in China. Normally it does not focus on individuals, such as the Shi Shou incident indicates. Usually it deals more in graft, black market, labor scams, extortion and money laundering. Violence only comes in at the point where someone would blow the whistle on these covert activities. While Xinhua News, the largest news agency in China actively reports on crackdowns regarding these goings-on, in fact every level of government, and a lot of government officials are on the take.

In a conversation with my friend Gary, who is a business owner, he asserted that, twice a year he must pay a ‘tax’ to a government inspector. The sum can range anywhere from 1,500Yuan to over 5,000Yuan, depending on how successful the business has been that half-year. When it is time to pay the ‘taxes’, the ‘inspector’ comes to his office, looks over the business’ books and demands his ‘tax’. Gary knows perfectly well that it has nothing to do with paying taxes and everything to do with that government official lining his pockets.

Every other citizen I’ve spoken with knows that this system of graft is alive and well in every nook and cranny of the country. Sam’s parents have to pay a similar ‘tax’ in Xi Shui, for example. In the smaller townships the government officials are much more blatant about collecting their bounty. A lot of my students have reported similar incursions into their family’s business by a civic minded government official, seeking his share of protection money against the larger governmental entities.

Just like every citizen knows such goings-on are commonplace, they also know that turning a blind eye, not reporting the perpetrator and not making waves is the best way to stay safe. That is why the incident at Shi Shou made such a splash.

The young man, Tu Yuangao, knew the hotel he worked at was a money laundering facility. He intended to blow the whistle on the activities at his workplace and, most speculate, was murdered to guarantee his silence. He was found dead outside the hotel’s gate. The police assured the parents that they had found a suicide note by the body, stating that Tu was ‘pessimistic and hated the world’. The police offered the boy’s parents 35,000Yuan in exchange for immediate cremation of their son’s body.

The father refused. The police attempted to remove the body by force. The entire town rallied around the hotel, blocking the police’s way. Tu’s parents demanded an investigation into their son’s death. The police refused. More people came in support of the parents. A riot erupted. At one time it was alleged that there were some 70,000 people who turned out in support of the parents.

Armed police in full riot gear were deployed. Internet and outside communications to the village were cut off. Street lights were turned out. Still the citizens did not disperse, choosing instead to bombard the police with bottles, bricks and any other projectile they could get their hands on.

The standoff lasted 2 days, culminating in the police beating their way into the hotel and removing the body by force. Several hundred protesters were arrested. The hotel, owned by a local government official, was burned. More than 200 people were injured in the clash.

An autopsy performed on Tu’s body allegedly revealed that Tu had committed suicide. His body was cremated at 4AM, two days after the rioting started. The local government promised Tu’s family 80,000Yuan compensation money, 30K of which was to come from the hotel, 35K from the Shi Shou government and 15K from the local township government.

My friends, I was shocked at reading about this incident. I was even more shocked at reading there are several other instances of violence and death due to government corruption: the Weng’an riot of 2008 caused by a young girl that had been raped and murdered by a government official, the Shenzhen anti-police riot of 2008 and the 2011 Anshun incident, just to mention a few. If you’re wildly interested, simply do a google search for these incidents and you can read all about them.

I guess, like every other person living in China, I know to keep my head down and not cross the law or any government official. That is just common sense. On a personal level I still believe I am safer here, when dealing with ye average citizen than I am in the States (or anywhere else in the world). And, as previously reported in a post titled “The Honor System” (posted December 2010), the honor system does prevail at my level of existence.

Now for something a little more… dangerous.

The first time I saw the notice of the murderer I was in Nanjing. Having a not so great command of the language I couldn’t read the notice posted on the city’s bulletin boards and bus stops but I understood that this guy had done something terrible and was being sought by the police. This notification had about 2/3 of a page of text and, at the bottom, 3 surveillance camera pictures of him.

I saw the same notices in Wuhan, Beijing and at every long distance bus terminal I frequented during my many travels over Winter Break. Meeting up with Sam for the first time, on our way to Beijing I saw the notice again and asked him what it was all about.

Apparently, this fellow somehow got his hands on a gun and shot 8 people in the course of robbing them, in 8 different cities. The police have no idea how to find him or even how he got his hands on a gun.

As you may know, Chinese citizens are not allowed to own guns.

The country is in an uproar. People are living in fear and locking their doors. They are wary of strangers. They really don’t know how to act or how to protect themselves in the face of this unknown, never before experienced threat.

I wanted to tell you about rapes too, but I’m running a bit long on this post. To see a fine example of this type of situation that does in fact go on in China, please watch a movie titled Blind Mountain. I’m not going to comment on it one way or another, other than to tell you that yes, that is something that goes on here. And yes, that is how it would play out.

As always, feel free to comment. Or, you can let me know your thoughts via email at teamkrejados@gmail.com.