Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Wealth, alcohol, cars, Chinese drivers

When economic growth, wealth, and millions of new drivers combine with old customs about drinking, China faces new problems.

China, long lax on drunken driving, begins crackdown after string of fatal crashes

After three decades of uninhibited economic growth, one vexing crisis China faces is this: more money, more cars, more drinking, more problems…

Chinese officials have begun responding to drunken driving the way they would to any threat to social stability — with overwhelming force.

Last month, China instituted its first law making drunken driving a criminal act. Soon after, officials declared a full-on war in China’s streets. In Beijing alone, 7,000 police officers were deployed to set up checkpoints, armed with tear gas and 10-meter, tire-puncturing nail strips. And for several weeks, state-owned media plastered stories of such arrests on their front pages.

In just two decades, China has transformed from a land of bicycles to a country where cars are the preeminent symbol of status. The numbers are staggering, rocketing from 5.5 million civilian-owned cars and trucks in 1990 to 214 million vehicles now clogging China’s streets. Last year, more than 18 million vehicles were sold, making it the world’s largest auto market.

China’s healthy love for liquor has been celebrated for centuries. Its history and literature are practically soaked in it — especially the traditional Chinese grain alcohol baijiu.

Baijiu remains ubiquitous in restaurants. Business dinners inevitably feature the fiery, sorghum-based liquor, with each side making toasts and forcing the other to drink under threat of losing face…

[B]ecause new car owners tend to be upper-class elites, lethal cases of drunken driving have become a symbol of sorts of the widening disparity between China’s rich and poor…