A parable about the individual's perceived powerlessness is big news, writes CLIFFORD COONANin Beijing
IT’S A common, but highly illegal, practice on the streets of China’s cities. A private car will stop and offer a lift to someone who appears stranded, charging around 10 yuan, or one euro, for the service, or sometimes more.
When Sun Zhongjie (19), a driver from Henan province, was arrested in what looked like the usual police sting operation, officers did not think twice about jailing him as the operator of an illegal taxi.
Sun had only arrived in the nation’s financial capital Shanghai two days before.
In his version of events, he was hailed on October 14th by a man desperately looking for a lift. Three minutes later, traffic cops descended on Sun and accused him of running an unlicensed cab.
It seemed a fair cop, and the normal thing would be for someone like Sun to keep his mouth shut. But he was persistent.
He said he had not taken any money from the man, and so insistent was he of his innocence that he cut off his little finger in protest and to vent his frustration.
In a situation with few precedents in China, Sun has now received an apology from Shanghai City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau for the area of Pudong.
Apologies from the police are not given lightly in China, and Sun was even told he will be compensated for his ordeal.
“I’m happy,” the teenager sobbed after the apology was announced, his hand bandaged.
This story is major news in China right now because it is a kind of a parable about the individual’s perceived powerlessness in the face of giant public institutions.
Jiang Liang, head of Pudong district, told a news conference that police adopted “improper methods” in evidence collection when they snared Sun.
Jiang said officers had paid a man to act as bait and entrap the young driver – which is illegal in China, but a practice that critics believe is widespread.
Jiang went on: “People who are responsible for illegal law enforcement and for . . . false investigation will be punished according to the law. The Pudong New Area district government will learn a lesson from the incident and regulate law enforcement against illegal cab operations,” he said.
This is tantamount to a self-criticism, and perhaps an indication of how seriously the government takes the threat of public disorder prompted by seemingly innocuous events at a local level.
In an online poll on a local website, more than 98 per cent of nearly 20,000 netizens said they did not believe the government department had conducted a fair investigation, and many believe the police were looking for kickbacks and used entrapment.
A senior cadre, Huang Hong, has confirmed that the “desperate hitchhiker”, Chen Xiongjie, was on the payroll of the traffic law enforcement team and had been used by police as bait.
Now the Shanghai municipal government is taking steps to more effectively regulate transportation issues, with the announcement of a new team, led by a vice-mayor, to stop illegal traffic law enforcement operations.
In a similar case, local officials in the Shanghai district of Minhang announced that they would return a fine of 10,000 yuan (€993) collected from Zhang Hui, a man also falsely accused of operating an unlicensed taxi.
Zhang was stopped on September 8th by a man claiming to have severe stomach pain. The man said he could not find a taxi and needed to get to hospital.
Five minutes later, Zhang’s car was stopped by police and he was accused of operating a “black taxi”.
Hao Jinsong, a lawyer representing both Sun and Zhang, urged a proper investigation.
“Since the two incidents in Shanghai were reported, I have been receiving letters and calls from across the country from people telling me they were also trapped,” he said.
“It is estimated that several thousand drivers in Shanghai are trapped every year during police crackdowns against ‘black taxis’.”