This Generation by Han Han

Author:Han Han
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

What is it you’re so afraid of?

April 17, 2010

Today, through some chat rooms, I heard about the three people who have been sentenced to jail terms in Mawei, Fujian. To be honest, this was complete news to me, so I began a search. First of all I tried Google’s Hong Kong site, only to find that it was just like if you try to search for “carrot” or “plum”—the page simply refused to open.21 So then I tried the Baidu search engine, and all I learned is that these three netizens had been arrested on suspicion of slander. Who was it they slandered? I wondered. If they slandered the local public security agency, I thought, then it’s all over for them. For when they slander the local public security, and their case is then handled by the local courts—well, won’t they have already agreed on the sentence when they all have dinner together in a local restaurant?

In the interests of being fair to all parties, I continued my search for a report on how these three netizens had slandered the government, but the trail soon went cold. First I tried the “Baidu knows the answer” function, only to find that Baidu did not know the answer—of course, it wouldn’t say, even if it knew. So then I tried Sina’s “Sina loves questions” feature, only to find it didn’t appreciate this particular inquiry. But by the end of it all I had a general picture of what had happened. It is actually all too typical a story, and to avoid causing this essay to provoke an allergic reaction I am going to withhold the names of all the people involved.

After a woman’s sudden death, her family suspected she had been gang-raped. They demanded an autopsy, but the coroner’s conclusion was that she had simply died of an illness. The family suspected the police of shielding the perpetrators and demanded a new autopsy, but they were stonewalled by the authorities. Hearing of this incident, three rights activists, concluding that the woman had been raped, circulated the news to chat rooms at home and abroad. The local public security held a news conference where they reiterated that the deceased died from natural causes, and soon after the people responsible for the posts were arrested by the local public security and the three netizens were sentenced to between one and two years in prison.

So that’s basically the story. In terms of the case itself, the key issue is just how the victim died. Having no basis on which to make a judgment, I am in no position to side either with the rights activists or with the government. The government’s view is that if they have made an announcement, then that constitutes proof. The rights activists view is that if they have looked into the case, then that constitutes proof. The questions I would raise are: In the countless disputes of this kind, is the government always in the wrong? Not necessarily. Are the rights activists always right? Not necessarily.

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