October 8th, the incident of “the regimental commander and his wife used government vehicles for traveling during the holiday, and had conflict with the staff at the tourist attraction” spread on the internet forums. The concerned parties in this post, Chen Wei (陈伟) and Yu Fuqin (于富琴), as the result of illegally using official vehicles and causing the conflict with the staff member of the attraction, had extremely bad influence on the community. Agricultural Corps 12th Division party committee made a decision to remove Chen Wei from the positions of Party Standing committee deputy and Regimental Commander of the 12th division 221st regiment. At the same time, agriculture 12th division 221st regiment party committee decided to dismiss Yu Fuqin from the Party Secretary duties at the 221st Corps Hospital.
Information Office of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps
October 12, 2009
And check out this survey posted on Tianya.
What do you think “the most awesome” phrase in this incident is?
1. “we are people with status” 62.2%
2. “do not waste the police” 26.4%
3. “I want to talk with him alone, and tell you my identity.” 11.4%
Are you satisfied with the way the incident was handled?
1. Satisfied, concerned people were all handled. 44.5%
2. Not satisfied, very deceptive. 31.3%
3. Hard to say, continue to wait and see. 24.2%
9 comments
Ironically, one of the most suppressed netizen group in the East Asia seems also to be the most outspoken and active one. Yet again, the netizens of the mainland China has forced the government to act. There are some sad facts in this news though –
1. It requires outcries of citizens to force the Chinese authority to ‘react’ on such public offense – if the same thing happened in the Palace Museum in Taipei, this woman would be arrested immediately regardless of her husband being a regiment commander or the general of the army. Something is serious wrong with the mainland’s political system if the social justice there was still functioning based on the ‘petition of the mass’.
2. Many in the mainland still views such kind of government response as the ‘act of benevolence’ from the government. Upholding social justice and order should be considered as the natural duty of the government, not a show of mercy.
Honestly, I was surprised to see how the government jumped on this incident so quickly, and the result was quick and satisfying, at least from the surface. There were also rumors on the internet saying the tourist attraction staff girl was also someone powerful, “someone’s mistress perhaps” could get the police drive 800 KM for 2 slaps on the face… anyway I am not going to get into this rumor.
Yes it is impressive to see the power of Chinese netizens, yet again managed to expose outrageous corrupted officials and “get them in trouble”. Sure enough this is not the only and first case, many have happened in the recent past years.
Yes you are right there are serious issues with the social justice in mainland China and there are corruptions at every level, I would say especially at the lower, local levels. There are numerous of these kinds of exposures of injustices on the Chinese Internet, but only a few were resolved like this one. You can see the effort in Chinese central government, and government at every level to crack down on them. Chinese internet has been important to them; it serves almost as a tool for the government to engage in how the Chinese people really think. Chinese government does realize how powerful the Chinese internet is, other than the censorship; they also engage in it and respond to it… selectively, making examples out of those unlucky ones. None the less it is a step forward and good to see the power of the netizens yet again.
I am in total agreement with your idealistic views about social just governments and uncorrupted power structures.
However you have to understand that under any regime, US/Taiwan included, its very difficult to enforce social justice upon the regime. The best you can hope for is for their political enimies to get the upper hand and put em away al la ah bian. Justice for those with power is never served without a significant public voice.
In fact there is benefit to a regime that responds to ‘outcries of its citizens’ actually results in a more politically active citizenry. When people see results from their online ‘petition of the mass’ it encourages them to do so and gives them a way to focus their anger into a course of action that is somewhat effective. This is known as ‘fighting’ for your freedom. Something which many freedom loving people do NOT do.
Compare this to the times of old where people travel to beijing to petition only to be locked away in a black jail with a bunch of other angry people. Or now even worse, have the black guards come to their home and deliver their ‘response within 60 days of petition’.
Make no mistake, the regime doesn’t like this ‘petition of the mass’ system any more than you do. Even their 50 cent army isnt enough to derail its momentum.
As for your comment about ‘something wrong…..based on the petition of the mass’ Isn’t that how DEMOCRACY works? The mass speaks and the government listens? poor system indeed jackie wu…
Many who feel the need to refer to China as the Mainland harbor too much political bias to see many of the improvements our Chinese compatriots have been experiencing over that past 20 years. Expecting government of any Chinese based culture to be truly benevolent would require changing historically Confucian beliefs of taking care of one’s own first. And amazingly, it is happening slowly in both China and Taiwan (ex-President “a-bian”‘s reign aside)
But yes, the role of government is evolving and is behind the process that Taiwan has experienced over the past 50 years. But at least it is changing. It was a good sign that the relevant government agencies acted as swiftly as they did.
LOL not for long probably if KMT stays in power. It’s got a long recor of corruption
Great investigative job. A good thing they were both fired. The woman could have been punished more severely, though, a few months’ hard labor.