Here are three examples that support what I wrote in “Part 2”. During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, a Chinese man took several foreign tourists hostage. The local police talked him into letting the tourists go, and the kidnapper surrendered. When the police officer went into the building after the tourists were released, the kidnapper was shot dead. It was announced he resisted arrest. Problem solved and out of sight.
Then there was the scandal about the tainted infant formula. Before there could be a trial for the Chinese citizen directly responsible for what happened, the man killed himself. Problem solved and out of sight.
In the Time piece comparing how China handled its 2008 earthquake to how Haiti’s people are responding to their devastating earthquake, it was mentioned “Despite allegations that corruption led to the shoddy construction of schools in the first place, China hasn’t punished anyone for any wrongdoing that occurred before the (May 2008 Sichuan) earthquake. Grieving parents who protested over the deaths of their children in collapsed schools were silenced by payments and by threats of punishment if they continued their agitation.”
It’s obvious from the context of the piece in Time, that the Chinese government was being accused of covering up this scandal and protecting the guilty.
Further reading:
Time: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100121/wl_time/08599195464400
Associated Press: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100122/ap_on_hi_te/as_china_google
Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning My Splendid Concubine and writes The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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