Author: David Bandurski

Now Executive Director of the China Media Project, leading the project’s research and partnerships, David originally joined the project in Hong Kong in 2004. He is the author of Dragons in Diamond Village (Penguin), a book of reportage about urbanization and social activism in China, and co-editor of Investigative Journalism in China (HKU Press).

Microblogs and Smoldering Change

“No other year,” a December 2010 article in the Yangtse Evening News said, “has as much as 2010 driven us to find hope in the idea that ‘there is power in encompassing attention.'” The term, wei guan de liliang (围观的力量), refers to the impact on social and political issues that comes as hundreds of thousands or millions of Chinese gather in support or opposition through the medium of the mobile Internet — through such tools, for example, as the microblog. Some in China have dubbed 2010 the “Birthyear of the Microblog,” citing the power the medium has to gather attention around issues and news events. In this cartoon, posted by artist Xu Jun (徐骏) to his QQ blog, a landscape of burning fires (symbolizing public opinion flash points) are mediated by mobile handsets that mirror the events themselves and are labeled “microblog.”

Reporter breaks silence on the Li Gang Case

On Christmas Day, veteran investigative reporter and CMP fellow Wang Keqin (王克勤) posted his investigation, undertaken with journalism student Feng Jun (冯军), of the so-called Li Gang Gate (李刚门), or “drag racing case” (飙车案). The case, which unfolded last October, involved the son of an influential Hebei police official, who struck and killed one female student and injured another at Hebei University while driving his car across campus. The driver, Li Qiming (李启铭), reportedly stepped out of the car and shouted when he was finally stopped by security guards, “My father is Li Gang, just you try to sue me!”
Since the initial story sparked outrage and concern nationwide, and the warning from the young Li became a national catchphrase encompassing the problem of abuse of power and official privilege, the case has taken many turns. In late October, China’s Central Propaganda Department finally issued a directive against further coverage of the story, and reporters working on the story were ordered to leave Hebei.
Most recently, there was news that Zhang Kai (张凯), the lawyer representing the family of the victim, Chen Xiaofeng (陈晓凤), was attacked by unknown assailants [link in Chinese], and that Chen’s parents had agreed to a settlement, or “reconciliation,” with Li Gang.
Sitting down with CMP back in November, Wang Keqin told us quietly that he was busy working on a report on Li Gang Gate. The December 25 post, released on his blog, is the first part of Wang’s report with student Feng Jun. The report deals with the issue of the supposed “reconciliation” between Chen Xiaofeng’s family and Li Gang and the political machinations behind the scenes.
The report begins:

“From Li Gang-gate to apology-gate to silencing-gate to plagiarism-gate to luxury housing-gate to media ban-gate to speed detection-gate to autopsy-gate to disappearance-gate to dismissal-gate to settlement-gate to silence-gate . . .
So ran the dazzling and bewildering saga of the so-called “drag racing case” (飙车案) at Hebei University, along tortuous turns that neither the public nor Web users, and neither the relatives of the victims nor their lawyer, could possibly
have foreseen.
One sentence, “My father is Li Gang,” threw our entire country into a discussion and action, but things settled once again into silence. How did this case unfold? And what were the forces hidden behind the scenes?

Thanks to the good work of ChinaGeeks, a translation of Wang’s report became available in English yesterday. You can read it HERE.

Slave Labor

In December 2010, Chinese media reported that a sweatshop in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region had enslaved and abused 12 mentally disabled workers. The case, covered by People’s Daily Online here, exposed a nationwide practice of trading mentally disabled individuals into factories and workshops. In mid December, Zeng Lingquan, the owner of a shelter for the mentally disabled in Sichuan province, was detained for allegedly selling mentally disabled individuals from a shelter he operated. In this cartoon, posted by artist Kuang Biao (邝飚) to his QQ blog, four mentally disabled laborers struggle to break rocks in a ghostly quarry littered with strange stones that resemble skulls.

Nature's First Green is . . . Spray Paint?

Xi’an Evening Post reported in December 2010 that local district leaders in Shaanxi’s Shangluo City (商洛市) applied green paint to green belts alongside a major thoroughfare beside Jinfeng Mountain Park in order to impress visiting officials. The paint job, an odd bright green in the dead of winter, even left the base of the street lamps painted green. Park management authorities in Shangluo denied any knowledge of the painting project, and there was confusion about who exactly was responsible, some suspecting that contractors responsible for maintenance of the green areas might have painted them in an attempt to fool city officials. [2008 city government report here]. In this cartoon, posted by the Kunming-based studio Yuan Jiao Man’s Space (圆觉漫时空) to QQ.com, a visiting official smiles as he is introduced to a green-painted world by fawning local officials painted (sloppily) in green from head to foot..

The lessons of risk and sacrifice

There has been a storm of accusations online in China since the death earlier this month of 23 year-old policeman Zhang Ninghai (张宁海), who fell from a cliff in the rugged Huangshan Mountains while escorting 18 young hikers from Shanghai’s Fudan University to safety. The students had apparently gone off climbing on their own, without purchasing tickets for entry to the popular tourist park, and they were ill-prepared. But much of the anger vented online in the wake of this tragedy has been misplaced, and blame has been heaped unnecessarily on the students.
Many have denounced the students for putting themselves in harm’s way and bringing about the young policeman’s sacrifice as a result. Others have accused them of cold insensitivity, saying for example that they have shown insufficient respect for officer Zhang Ninghai.
This last accusation has no basis in fact, and the remorse felt by the students has been demonstrated quite clearly. As for their having gone off without purchasing tickets, the management authorities in Huangshan have something to answer for on this account. The natural scenery of Huangshan does not belong to the local authorities. What makes them think they can cordon off a resource that belongs to all of us and then charge us a premium to enjoy it? If I were a student in the same position, I think I might have done exactly what these students did, finding a way to enter the park without a ticket.
The real error these students made was to not make adequate preparations for the risks they were taking on. Having chosen to put themselves in a relatively dangerous situation, they should done more to prepare properly. They should have known what the weather conditions might be, and taken the necessary equipment and precautions, minimizing risk.
Yes, of course the tragic death of Zhang Ninghai was related to their risk-taking. But do they really deserve such a surge of criticism and ridicule? We should applaud the officer’s spirit of personal sacrifice, but linking this sacrifice directly to the actions and choices of the students is entirely unnecessary. As a police officer serving in the Huangshan region, it was Zhang Ninghai’s duty to answer the call and rush to the rescue, a duty that comes with definite risks.
There are plenty of people in the world who take risks, plenty who find themselves in need of rescue, and plenty who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. But is it right to slur the risk takers because their actions led others to sacrifice themselves?
We may eulogize those who put their lives on the line for the sake of others. But that doesn’t mean, by extension, that we have to cast those they saved as arch-criminals who engineered their untimely deaths. That sort of thinking seems to imply that their sacrifices were pointless to begin with.
We’ve all been young before. Our recklessness and risk-taking agitated our parents to no end and brought reprimand from our teachers, but all of us now look back on those days with a certain pride. What could we possibly accomplish if we never dared to take risks, if we were completely drained of that adventurous spirit of youth?
Speaking as a university educator, I believe one thing we sorely need today is to encourage young people to go and take risks, and to test their limits. If we coddle the next generation, like soft chicks who must make no missteps, they may still grow up with some level of ability, but they will grow callow and conventional.
There is room to criticize the Fudan University students for their poor decisions. But there is no need to go overboard in assigning blame. Many others have acted just as they did. I did the same sorts of things when I was in school, and I consider myself richer for them. So I hope the university authorities are wise enough to deal with these students leniently.
In fact, one aspect of this whole affair that is most deserving of censure is the wave of pro-censorship jargon that appeared on Fudan University’s internal online bulletin-board site (BBS) in the wake of the tragedy — posts about the need to conscientiously control the news media on the story, to properly spin this public relations crisis. There was even a thread about how news reporters for the university needed to “hold their media position” in order to ensure a positive outcome.
This idea, that a news incident is best handled by slamming the lid down tight, is a backwards and ignorant frame of mind we’re accustomed to hearing from certain government officials. That this attitude should find such active proponents on the internal BBS of one of China’s premier academic institutions should be heard as another warning signal of how seriously wrong things are in our current education system.
This editorial first appeared in Chinese at Southern Metropolis Daily.

Bowing to the Top Tester

Chengdu Daily, the official Party newspaper of top city officials, reported earlier this month that a local schoolteacher had instituted a new classroom procedure requiring all classmates to bow in unison before the student “showing the greatest progress”. The students were required to bow their bodies 90 degrees and stay in that position for 10 seconds, the newspaper reported. In this cartoon, posted by artist Shang Haichun (商海春) to his QQ blog, a class of students in their uniforms bows to a student holding a paper with a perfect score.

What were China's top stories in 2010?

With a list of candidates for the “Top Ten Domestic Stories of the Year“, an online survey feature released over the weekend and shared on most major news portals, People’s Daily Online packaged a politically tidy version of China’s headlines in 2010. Missing from the list of options to be selected from web users between December 17 and December 27 — with the winners announced afterwards — were not just odd favorites, but critical and defining stories, such as the ongoing burden of housing prices and a series of violent attacks on school children in April and May.


In the comments section at People’s Daily Online, web users noted a number of conspicuous absences. “I think the whole ‘My Dad is Li Gang‘ story deserves to be number one,” wrote one respondent, referring to an October incident in which the son of an influential police official in Hubei province struck and killed two female students while driving his sedan across a university campus.
The Hubei story drew a wave of public outrage after it emerged that the official’s son, when finally stopped by students and security guards, had stepped out of his car and threatened, “My Dad is Li Gang! You just try to sue me!” Bans on the reporting of this sensitive story followed quickly, and the university campus was reportedly under lockdown. Just last week, the lawyer representing the parents of one of the victims was attacked by unidentified assailants.
But no one will be casting votes for the Li Gang story, which didn’t make the short list of candidates at People’s Daily Online. A user sarcastically identified as “the river crab is so yellow and so violent“; (a reference to censorship masquerading under the official banner of ‘harmony’) wrote: “With even Li Gang not on the list, this whole thing is so obviously a fraud!”
“Why isn’t Li Gang on the list?” asked another user, identified as “GoGoGo.” Wrote another: “I veto this entire list! Li Gang and demolition aren’t even on there.”
“What about illegal demolition and removal?” another web user commented, referring to the forced removal of residents from their homes to make room for development projects, a sensitive ongoing issue that has in fact gotten substantial play in the headlines in China — not least following an incident in Yihuang, Jiangxi province, in which three residents facing eviction at the hands of callous local officials set themselves on fire and eventually died of their injuries as the nation looked on.
In an act of defiance that apparently escaped forum managers, user “1223” invoked the recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo: “I think that the Peace Prize is the number one story this year,” they wrote. In order to remove the obvious red flags, the user replaced the characters for “peace” + “prize”, or heping jiang (和平奖), with the same-sounding characters “crane” + “level” + “palm”, or heping zhang (鹤平掌).
“How can the democracy question not be on there?” asked user “Communist Party.” A very good question, considering that democracy and political reform have been recurrent issues this year ever since the National People’s Congress, when Wen Jiabao said that the “drive toward modernization will fail without political reform” [the bold headline on this front page, below, at Xiao Xiang Morning Post].

Despite the diligence of forum managers — two of my own attempts to post on neglected news stories failed — the majority of comments were fault-finding.
“The official color of this list is so obvious,” wrote user “123.” “Just think about housing prices. That should be number one!”
“This is so fake,” said user “asdf.”
“This really is a selection list with Chinese characteristics!” wrote user “Chinese Characteristics,” poking fun at the conservative political buzzword “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Here is the list from People’s Daily Online of the 15 candidates for the top ten domestic news stories of 2010.
1. The Fifth Plenary Conference of the 17th Central Committee of the CCP is held in Beijing (October)
This meeting of top CCP leaders, held from October 15-18, issues opinions for the creation of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, and politburo member Xi Jinping (习近平) is promoted vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.
2. CCP organizations and Party members at the grassroots levels launch intensive campaigns to encourage them to excel in their performance (April-May)
3. The Shanghai World Expo is held successfully, showing off the fruits of urban civilization (May-October)
Successfully held from May 1 to October 31, the World Expo notched up many records: 246 nations participated, 73 million domestic and international guests visited, and on the biggest day more than one million guest visited the
exhibits.
4. The Central Party leadership introduces successive policies to adjust housing and product prices, controlling the rise of property and product prices
5. The government launches the country’s first medium and long-term talent plan (May)
On May 25 and 26, China’s State Council introduces a strategic plan ((中长期人才规划纲要)) for the development of talent up to 2020. This is the first plan of its kind in China, and aims to put China in the ranks of the world’s top talent nations.
6. 30-year anniversary celebrations held for Shenzhen, Shantou and Zhuhai (September)
7. Strengthening cross-straits economic ties (June)
On June 29 in Chongqing, Chen Yunlin (陈云林), chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits http://www.arats.com.cn/, and Jiang Bingkun (江丙坤), president of the Cross-Straits Dialogue Foundation, signed a Framework Agreement for Economic Cooperation Between the Two Sides of the Taiwan Straits (海峡两岸经济合作框架协议). Both sides pledged to strengthen economic and trade ties.
8. China’s 6th National Census begins (November)
The national census is launched on November 1. On November 15, the Office of the Population Census Leadership Work Group and the National Bureau of Statistics issue a letter of thanks to the people of China. This national census is the first to also count Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents living in China, as well as foreigners.
9. Implementation of the National Plan for the Medium and Long-term Reform and Development of the Education System (July)
According to this plan, preschool education will be universal in China by 2020.
10. The Chang’e 2 satellite is successfully launched (October)
The satellite successfully enters orbit around the moon, beaming back images of its surface. The mission was a successful step toward a manned lunar mission.
11. Track laying was completed for the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway (November)
The high-speed railway will be the world’s fastest when it opens in 2011.
12. Guangzhou successfully hosts the 2010 Asian Games (November-December)
China wins 199 gold medals, 119 silver and 98 bronze, dominating the medals table.
13. An earthquake strikes Yushu County in Qinghai province (April 14)
The earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, claims 2,000 lives.
CMP: “Day of mourning for the victims of Yushu
14. A mudslide suddenly strikes Zhouqu County in Gansu province, killing around 1,000 people (August 7)
CMP: “Caijing shines with Gansu disaster coverage
CMP: “China’s media go dark for Zhouqu
15. 115 die and 38 are rescued in a mining disaster in Wangjialing (王家岭), Shanxi province (March)
CMP: “Why must our heroes sleep on stones
CMP: “Slogans do no honor to China’s miners
Just to give readers an idea of what other stories might be considered for a list of top ten news for 2010, here is a top-eleven list of news stories that do not appear on the People’s Daily Online list. We provide links to relevant English-language news coverage where possible. And we encourage readers to share in the comments section other stories we may have neglected to mention.
1. Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo wins the Nobel Peace Prize
CMP (People’s Daily): “Liu Xiaobo can’t possibly understand
CMP: “China Youth Daily attacks Liu Xiaobo Nobel
CMP/Comic China: “Dove of peace caged
CMP/Bei Feng: “Viewing the Liu Xiaobo response through Twitter
CMP/Comic China: “Nobel languishes behind bars
CMP: “China’s responds to Liu Xiaobo Nobel
2. Seven Mentions by Premier Wen Jiabao of Political Reform
CNN: “Transcript of Interview with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
CMP/He Weifang: “First Steps Toward Political Reform
CMP/Hu Shuli: “We Must Act Quickly on Political Reform
CMP/Du Daozheng: “Democracy should not be divided into capitalist and socialist
CMP (People’s Daily): “China must take its own road
3. The Yihuang Self-Immolation Case
On September 10, 2010, a large contingent of police surrounded the Zhong home in Yihuang, Guangxi province, to carry out a forced demolition and removal order that would force the Zhongs from their family home. The family had been fighting eviction for months. In a final act of desperation, Ye Zhongcheng (叶忠诚) and two family members doused themselves with fuel and set themselves on fire to protest the government’s action. The event followed a similar self-immolation to protest eviction in Chengdu in 2009. On September 16, as the three victims remained in hospital, Zhong Rucui (钟如翠) and Zhong Rujiu (钟如九), daughters of Zhong Zhifeng, went to the local airport. They planned to take a flight to Beijing to petition for central government attention to the family’s case. Local officials responded by dispatching scores of police to the airport to stop them from traveling. Holed up in the women’s restroom at the airport, the women used their mobile phones to call a journalist, who then posted the news about their plight and the actions of local officials on a popular microblog service. Over the next three hours, Deng Fei (邓飞), a reporter for the Beijing-based Phoenix Weekly, sent out more than 20 microblog posts with the help of a reporter on the ground in Jiangxi. On September 18, Zhong Rujiu set up her own microblog, making regular posts on the tragedy and their own situation.
Global Voices: “The Power of Microblogging
ESWN: Full roundup and translations
CMP: “Microblogs Reshape the News
4. Xie Chaoping arrested for work of reportage exposing abuses during the building of the Sanmen Dam project in the 1950s
The Guardian: “Writer Xie Chaoping detained in Shanxi
Useless Tree: “Xie Chaoping and the Impossibility of State Confucianism in China
5. String of violent attacks on Chinese schoolchildren across the country (April-May)
CNN: Round-up of attacks on China’s schools
The Guardian: Wen Jiabao’s remarks on causes of attacks
NYT: “Fifth deadly attack on schools haunts China
CMP/Chang Ping: “School Attacks and Media Ethics
CMP/Comic China: “Safety for China’s Schoolchildren
6. Uncovering of Beijing Anyuanding Security Technology Services, a private firm running black jails in China
Global Asia/Yu Jianrong: “Holding Tight and Not Letting Go: the Mechanisms of Rigid Stability
CMP/Xiao Shu: “Anyuanding, and Why Political Reform Can’t Wait
NYT: “China Investigates Extralegal Prison Detentions
7. Google Exits Mainland China (January)
Forbes: “Google Takes on China
CMP: “Google, Don’t Become a Tool of Hegemony
Qian Gang: “Why Google’s Departure is Not Cause for Despair
8. Li Hongzhong NPC quote (March)
During this year’s session of the National People’s Congress, Hubei Governor Li Hongzhong became furious when a reporter from the Beijing Times, a commercial spin-off of the Party’s official People’s Daily, asked a question about the Deng Yujiao case in 2009. Grabbing the reporter’s digital recorder from her hand, Li fumed: “You’re from People’s Daily and you ask such a question? Is this the kind of mouthpiece you are? Is this how you guide public opinion? What is your name? I want to find your boss!” Hundreds of professional journalists responded with an open letter calling on Li to publicly apologize.
CMP: “Journalists Issue Open Letter Against Hubei Governor
9. Shanxi Vaccine Scandal (March)
An investigative report by Wang Keqin in the China Economic Times exposes how at least four children died and 74 suffer serious conditions as a result of the careless administration of vaccines by provincial authorities in Shanxi. The report suggests the vaccines were improperly stored in rooms without refrigeration and then delivered throughout the province, and that a company under the provincial health authority held a monopoly on vaccine distribution.
CMP: “China’s top watchdog reporter strikes again
CMP: “Editorial urges more action on the vaccine scandal
10. Joint editorial by Chinese commercial media (March)
On March 1, 14 newspapers in China jointly issued an editorial called “Will Our NPC Delegates Please Turn Their Attention and Efforts to the Reform of the Household Registration System.” “China has long suffered under the household registration system!” the March 1 joint editorial declared. In clear violation of China’s Constitution, it said, the two-tiered system of household registration cleaves China’s urban and rural residents into two distinct and unequal classes, and restricts the free movement of Chinese citizens.
CMP: Qian Gang: “Joint editorial should top the premier’s NPC reading list
11. Open letter from Party elders calls for free speech
On October 11, 23 Chinese Communist Party elders known for their pro-reform positions, including Mao Zedong’s former secretary Li Rui (李锐) and former People’s Daily editor-in-chief Hu Jiwei (胡绩伟), submitted an open letter to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, formally China’s highest state body, calling for an end to restrictions on expression in China. The letter urged the Communist Party to abolish censorship and realize citizens’ right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

An Impossible Knot to Tie

Unveiling the results of a national survey of attitudes toward marriage that seems to bode ill for single men hoping to tie the knot in an era of sky-high housing prices, the All-China Women’s Federation said 70 percent of single women surveyed say a man must own a home and have a stable source of income before they will agree to marriage. More than 40 percent of women surveyed said they hoped to find a spouse with a government job. In this cartoon, posted by artist Xu Jian (徐简) to his QQ blog, the single Chinese male (at center) with a rose of courtship clasped in his teeth is burdened by huge coins hanging from his arms as he is crushed under the weight of the single woman’s expectations, a huge dialogue bubble that reads: “I must have a house [before we marry]!” On his other side, a fat official tells him that high housing prices are necessary. In the upper left, Cupid flutters away despondently. “Even the rich will stay single all their lives,” Cupid says, “I’m out of work!”

New book from CMP director

One of the biggest overarching China stories of 2010 has to be the enigmatic tug-of-war over the issue of political reform, a debate that has been visible at times in China’s media and has shifted at other times to overseas media. At the heart of this debate were seven speeches on political reform given by Chinese Premier (温家宝) between August 20 and September 30. But the voices on political reform inside China, and within the broader Chinese community globally, were rich and varied.
In The Great Game of Political Reform: Wen Jiabao’s Seven Speeches on Political Reform, now available from Cosmos Books, CMP director Qian Gang compiles a diverse body of 2010 writings on political reform surrounding the remarks from China’s premier. The book is an essential read for anyone interested in the current and future climate of political reform in China, or in how this sensitive issue has been addressed by media inside China.


The book includes important analyses and commentary written this year by a range of writers inside and outside China, including Yanhuang Chunqiu editor Du Daozheng (杜导正), New Century editor-in-chief Hu Shuli (胡舒立), Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping (崔伟平), blogger and former foreign ministry official Yang Hengjun (杨恒均), Yazhou Zhoukan editor-in-chief Qiu Liben (邱立本), writer Yu Jie (余杰), Southern Weekend columnist Xiao Shu (笑蜀), as well as the largely anonymous drafters (or “writer’s groups”) offering rebuttals of pro-reform arguments in the likes of People’s Daily and Seeking Truth.

Why we all feel so vulnerable

Earlier this month, People’s Forum magazine, which is published by the official People’s Daily, ran a story about a national survey showing that close to half of all government officials in China view themselves as being among the nation’s “vulnerable groups” (弱势群体). According to the same survey, 73.5 percent of all Internet users identify themselves as “vulnerable,” as do 57.8 percent of white collar workers and 55.4 percent of writers and academics. In short, the People’s Forum report points to epidemic levels of insecurity in China.
I had my own double-edged brush with vulnerability when I microblogged recently about a trip I made with my 82 year-old father to a hospital in Guangzhou. We had waited for several hours for an injection before I finally gathered the courage to ask the nurse why things were taking so long. “Everyone is waiting, don’t you see that?” she answered brusquely. This set me on edge, and I later decided to vent my anger through my microblog. Immediately, scores of readers accused me of “exploiting the vulnerable,” “not considering others” and even of “bullying the weak.”
In the eyes of my accusers my tale of vulnerability had placed me up top with those privileged special interests.
It was the hospital’s total insensitivity to the vulnerability of my 82 year-old father — and their lack of reasonable policies for getting patients in and out — that had angered me in the first place. But it had never occurred to me that others would regard this gruff nurse as vulnerable, and victimized by me.
Another experience that left me gloomy recently concerns my 18 year-old son. If one were to apply this concept of “vulnerable groups” to present-day Australia, where my son lives, there’s little doubt that recent immigrants, and particularly recent immigrants from mainland China, would be counted among the vulnerable. Most Chinese immigrants, save those corrupt officials who slip through the net, arrive in Australia “poor and blank,” as we say. Goaded on by a sense of vulnerability, Chinese in Australia push hard to change their stars, and fortunately the vast majority are able to establish themselves.
But the shadow of vulnerability lives on in the next generation, emerging in the overbearing hopes parents place on their children. We want them to excel, and we hope they gravitate toward the most profitable and respectable professions. I’m no exception on this count, and my hopes have been rewarded with a son who has achieved quite well and who could study whatever he wishes at his university of choice.
My son suddenly announced to me recently, however, that he wants to be a pilot.
Now you must understand that being a pilot in Australia means not only that you have little guarantee of a job, but that you have to be ready to pay the 150,000 Australian dollars (about one million yuan) it takes to go through pilot training. How many rich men in the world made their millions flying airplanes?
In any case, my son confessed to me that his passion is for flying. I wanted to say to him, “Look, can a passion feed the family? Can a passion . . . ?” And then I stopped, realizing that my son doesn’t share the same sense of vulnerability that I have.
The fact is that in Australia you won’t go hungry if you’re not a doctor, a lawyer or a businessman. You won’t find yourself underprivileged to the point of living out on the street. In a society where the basic necessities of life come with some guarantee, one can pursue one’s dreams with a freer heart . . .
Try separating Australian employees and bosses into the “strong” and the “weak” and you’ve set yourself a difficult task. Being a boss and employing workers may seem to put you in a position of strength. But Australian laws mean that you’re the one in the position of weakness in your relationship with those you employ. What about workers? They receive all sorts of guarantees that the government obliges employers to provide. On the other hand, you can’t say that bosses are in a position of weakness either. Most importantly, the law ensures that their personal assets are inviolable. When in the last few decades have you ever heard about wealthy Australians being stripped of their assets? Or of Australians having their homes raided and property confiscated? Or of Australians having their homes forcibly destroyed without compensation?
Both inside and outside China, when we talk about the sense of insecurity that prevails in our country, we dwell on such things as wealth disparity, social inequality and the pressures of life. All of these are factors, of course. But the most critical problem is the lack of institutional protections and rule of law.
In a fair and prosperous society, in a stable and harmonious society, in a society safeguarded by rule of law, everyone is equal, everyone is the boss of himself, and everyone is the boss of his nation. In such a society, the numbers of those belonging to so-called “vulnerable groups” are also substantially reduced.
In the absence of a good system, and in the absence of rule of law, the poor risk being exploited by the rich, the rich risk being swallowed by the powerful, the powerful risk being tormented and toyed with by the still more powerful, and the still more powerful are tormented in turn by waves of public opinion, fearing that a reckoning lurks around the corner.
We all become “vulnerable groups.” And we all become vulnerable to the accusation that we enjoy too much privilege.
This article was originally posted in Chinese to Yang Hengjun’s Blog on December 9.