The
death last week of a toddler ignored by passers-by after being run over by two
vehicles is but the latest of many recent incidents to have sparked outrage in
Chinese society.
Here are 10 of the major ones:
1.
Killer milk
China's biggest food scandal left at least six
infants dead and hundreds of thousands of other children with kidney problems
after they drank milk adulterated with melamine, a chemical used to make
plastic.
Dairy producers had added the substance to
artificially boost protein content and increase profit. News of the milk
scandal stunned a nation which had just celebrated the success of the 2008
Beijing Olympics.
A volley of questions followed from angry
Chinese citizens, a key theme of which was whether the national obsession with
wealth had destroyed all sense of morality, opening the way for people who had
no compunction about killing babies for a fatter profit margin.
Officials were sacked and a few other culprits
executed and jailed. But Beijing has since cracked down on the parents'
protests and even jailed one of them, Zhao Lianhai.
2.
Death of a 'vagrant'
In 2003, 27-year-old Hubei graphic designer
Sun Zhigang was arrested in Guangzhou, after he failed to produce his local
residence permit. Without his papers, he was assumed to be a vagrant and taken
to a detention centre. He died three days later, an apparent victim of police
brutality.
His death triggered a huge outcry and focused
national attention on the shoddy treatment of China's underclass, which
includes not just beggars but also migrant workers. Reports surfaced of other
police abuses, including making money off their detainees by selling their
services as unpaid labour.
Public anger led the State Council to rescind
a 1982 law that allowed police to detain people who fail to produce local
residence permits.
3.
Better dead than injured
Chinese student Yao Jiaxin, 21, hit waitress
Zhang Miao with his red Chevrolet last year when she was cycling home from work
in Xi'an.
Fearing that the injured woman would seek
compensation, he then stabbed her to death. He confessed he murdered her
because he feared the 'peasant woman would be hard to deal with' over the
accident.
Yao was executed by lethal injection this
year. His case highlighted a quirk in China's traffic laws which has serious
unintended consequences: If the victim dies, the driver responsible is required
to fork out a lump-sum payment in compensation, but if the victim lives, the
driver has to pay all the medical fees arising from the accident for the rest
of the victim's life.
Yao, who reversed his vehicle and ran over
Zhang a second time before stabbing her, allegedly told the local media:
"If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan. But if she is injured,
it may cost me hundreds of thousands of yuan."
The fear of being saddled with huge, seemingly
endless payments was underscored yet again with the incident involving Yue Yue,
the toddler who died last week.
4.
Brick kiln slaves
The country was shocked that slavery, abetted
by government officials even, still existed when hundreds were rescued from
forced labour in brick kilns in northern Shanxi province.
Many of the slaves were abducted as children. They
had little to eat, and beatings and other forms of abuse were frequent. Guard
dogs prevented their escape while police in cahoots with local officials
obstructed attempts by parents to locate their missing children.
Such scandals did not end in 2007. Another
case was uncovered last week.
5.
Unlucky Samaritan
Technician Peng Yu helped an elderly woman up
on her feet after she stumbled and fell while jostling with a crowd that was
trying to board a bus in Nanjing in 2006.
She later accused him of causing her to fall,
and sued him. The judge ruled in her favour, saying common sense dictated that
only the person responsible for the act would offer a helping hand.
The verdict led to an uproar about warped
legal outcomes. Even now, it is often cited as the reason the Chinese are wary
about helping strangers in need.
6.
Burying a train
A day after one of China's biggest rail
accidents which left at least 40 people dead, officials swiftly buried parts of
the wreckage and called off rescue operations.
The unseemly haste was underscored by the
discovery of a little girl among the ruins a day after the order was issued.
The perceived cover-up and mishandling of the Wenzhou accident in July stoked
massive outrage among netizens and other commentators.
State media launched a rare and concerted
attack on the authorities, pressing for answers and accountability. The results
of the official investigation have not been released.
7.
Heroine killer
When a local official in central Hubei
province tried to force himself on Deng Yujiao, 21, a pedicurist at a hotel in
2009, she grabbed a knife and stabbed him to death.
The outpouring of sympathy for her and anger
towards the official became so strong that she was eventually released without
punishment.
The strong public reaction tapped into growing
resentment among ordinary Chinese towards corruption and other official
misconduct.
8.
Vigilante justice
Yang Jia, an unemployed man, was a ruthless
killer who charged into a police station in Shanghai in 2008, throwing petrol
bombs and stabbing six policemen to death.
But the Beijing man, who was taking revenge
for being beaten by the police earlier, was hailed by many Chinese as a hero.
He was likened to ancient Chinese heroes who
sought vigilante justice as netizens expressed outrage at the police brutality
they often witnessed in China.
9.
The infamous son
Drunk driver Li Qiming knocked down two
university students on campus last year, killing one of them.
When security guards tried to stop him from
fleeing the scene, he shouted: "Go ahead, sue me if you dare. My dad is Li
Gang!"
Li senior was the deputy director of the local
public security bureau in Baoding, northern Hebei province.
Fierce protests online ensued, with many
slamming it as an example of officials' offspring, the so-called guan er dai,
abusing power and believing that they are above the law.
Li Qiming was sentenced to six years in jail.
10.
Burning issue
The cost of China's rapid development took a
fiery twist in 2009 when Madam Tang Fuzhen set herself on fire in an attempt to
stop the forced demolition of a private building.
The self-immolation in Chengdu, Sichuan
province, was filmed on a mobile phone and spread quickly online.
It created a furore over China's demolition
law and the forced demolitions which are prevalent across the country, often
incurring the ire of the people because of inadequate compensation and the use
of thugs to evict residents.
Peh Shing Huei
The Straits Times
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