My daddy's more important than yours
Guanxi is important in China, but there are — at least in public opinion — limits. While the children and relatives of powerful people enjoy the benefits of their family connections, the public doesn't think they should get away with murder. And now the government's control of the media is being exposed and criticized.China’s Censors Misfire in Abuse-of-Power Case
One night in late October, a college student named Chen Xiaofeng was in-line skating with a friend on the grounds of Hebei University in central China. They were gliding past the campus grocery when a Volkswagen sedan raced down a narrow lane and struck them head-on…
The 22-year-old driver, who was intoxicated, tried to speed away. Security guards intercepted him, but he was undeterred. He warned them, “My father is Li Gang!”…
Li Gang is the deputy police chief in the Beishi district of Baoding… party propaganda officials moved swiftly after the accident to ensure that the story never gained traction.
Curiously, however, the opposite has happened. A month after the accident, much of China knows the story, and “My father is Li Gang” has become a bitter inside joke, a catchphrase for shirking any responsibility… with impunity. Even the government’s heavy-handed effort to control the story has become the object of scorn among younger, savvier Chinese…
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| Campus art titled, "My father is Li Gang" |
In many ways, the Li Gang case, as it is known, exemplifies how China’s propaganda machine — able to slant or kill any news in the age of printing presses and television — is sometimes hamstrung in the age of the Internet…
[T]he Li Gang case was hard to suppress, partly because it personified an enduring grievance: the belief that the powerful can flout the rules to which ordinary folk are forced to submit. Increasingly, that grievance focuses on what Chinese mockingly call the “guan er dai” and “fu er dai” — the “second generation,” children of privileged government officials and the super-rich…
[A] female blogger in northern China nicknamed Piggy Feet Beta announced a contest to incorporate the phrase “Li Gang is my father” into classical Chinese poetry. Six thousand applicants replied, one modifying a famous poem by Mao to read “it’s all in the past, talk about heroes, my father is Li Gang.”
Copycat competitions, using ad slogans and song lyrics, sprang up elsewhere on the Internet. In the southern metropolis of Chongqing, an artist created an installation based on the phrase...
Policeman settles China hit-and-run case with cash
A Chinese police official whose name became national shorthand for anger over abuse of power after his son was accused in a deadly hit-and-run accident has paid more than $69,000 in compensation, the victim's father said Thursday…
The victim's father, Chen Guangqian, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Li Gang gave him 460,000 yuan, or more than $69,250. A police spokesman for Li Gang refused to comment on the case.
The Oct. 16 death on a university campus focused popular outrage at China's elite and abuses of power, and Li Gang quickly appeared on national television, weeping, apologizing and bowing in front of the camera for half a minute…
State media last month was ordered not to publish any more stories on the accident. The Hebei governor announced that the provincial Communist Party committee has formed a working group to look into the case, which he said made the province look bad...
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Labels: China, political culture, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:04 AM
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China hit-and-run driver sentenced to six years in jail
The son of a senior police official in China has been sentenced to six years in jail over a hit-and-run accident that killed a young woman.
Li Qiming admitted he had been driving while drunk when he hit two students in Baoding, one of whom later died.
The case sparked an outcry across China because of reports that Li had tried to exploit his father's rank.
The story circulated online as an example of government officials and their relatives abusing their power…
Local media reported that when people had tried to stop him fleeing the scene, Li, then 22, had said: "Go ahead, sue me. My father is Li Gang."…
The story went viral on the internet and "My father is Li Gang" became infamous as a catch phrase….
One of my former students covered the "My father is Li Gang!" story for CNN. It offers some grassroots reactions. And how could I resist posting an article by someone I used to know?
Police chief's son gets six years in fatal hit-and-run
A Chinese man who killed a college student while driving drunk and then tried to use his father's name as a police official to escape punishment was sentenced to six years' in jail on Sunday, sparking a furious reaction on the internet where the verdict was condemned by many bloggers as too lenient…
"'This society is too corrupt," wrote user RuRuM on Sina.com's microblogging service Weibo. "This society is too unfair."
"Money is still above the law. Life is cheap if you can pay in cash," said user Olivia_Xuxu.
Another blogger Vincent-88 wrote, "This shows, the words 'my dad is Li Gang" still have a lot of power. The judge only saw Li's father's tears, instead of the tears of the affected families."…
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