@rejected: I'd be surprised if this never happened - I wonder how often it does? News reports indicate something, of course. I doubt if 350rmb would usually do it, and agree with you that it usually has to do with the social status of the culpret, as well as that of the victim.
Disgusting, and does indeed point to lousy social tendencies in the meteoric and inegalitarian economic rise of the population.
@Alien: if one reads one's vehicle compulsory third party insurance policy, one would find that the maximum insurance death and disability cover is 110,000 as per the State Council. that is the maximum if the victim can proof no fault. the maximum for no fault compensation claim is 11,000. when the victims family is financially and emotionally stressed, the chance of falling victim to 'suggestions' of fast/discounted payout is high. remember that dead man/woman cant talk so there are a lot of cracks there. plus the supreme court in china directs that the formulae for calculating compensation is, 20 years of the average local income of the victims. that is why causing death is cheaper. :-(
One? One's? Queen Elizabeth, is that you?
this driving issue reflects a lot about the social inner workings of this country. pure capitalism. a life in china has a price...it.s very cheap...lack of compassion and empathy. this law enciurages killing even children.
it.s big in the foreign press, this week....love it. and instead of just intruducing samaritan law, they will blame foreigners for putting it in the news. but since mostly wealthy and gov. workers will be the culprits, there will be no reason to change it.
how messed up on a sociopath level must one be to intentionally kill a child,to avoid payment? disgusting!
i am wondering where the chinese culture defenders are, on this one? ...awfully quiet!
Plenty of compassion and empathy, but it tends to be focused within the social circle of those one knows (family, friends, classmates, etc.) rather than to be spread to include those one doesn't - something true everywhere, but a bit stronger in China than in some places. Culture grows from history and is influenced by, and changes with, events, and feeds back into them; and China's history has promoted a strong development of family virtues & solidarity etc., as we all know (Confucianism). Not sufficient for mass society, and rapid capitalist, or even socialist engineered, development doesn't quite fill the bill either, as it progressively narrows and breaks down family solidarity.
Sadly, social engineering does/did work in china. At the dawn of the history of the 'communist' republic, great efforts in propaganda had been put to educate the public into valuing the Nation's property above individual life,eg, Lei Feng (雷锋), the make-believe national hero had steered the national psychic to that end, the current phenomenon is just an extension with a slight change of traits - valuing one's property above life, in my humble opinion. :-(
