We keep going around in circles. The Western reports have no new details, the Few Chinese blogs I’ve looked at have no new pertinent details, Chinese news that I’ve seen are editorials and no new content, the perp hasn’t been paraded on TV (AFAIK), etc etc. We haven’t had any Doper video expert weigh in. So, things still don’t add up in a Chinese context.
What circles? The video appears legit, Reuters and AP regard it as legitimate, Chinese media is blatantly censored, yet you are waiting for some random Doper or Chinese citizen ™ expert testimony before you accept it’s real?
What if this had been filmed in Detroit, or Islamabad, or NYC or Karachi…would you still be so defensive or skeptical?
I first read of this video over a week ago and didn’t watch it until today because the idea of it was so disturbing. I wish I hadn’t now, but it seems that all reputable news outlets are treating this as real and it certainly looks to be so.
Something similar is done on a very large scale in Thailand too.
People who are very familiar with China in this thread have serious questions about the video, and that’s good enough for me. No one is saying 100% it is a fake, just that there are some suspicious anomalies with the video and story. And after seeing how BBC has consistently flubbed it’s reporting from Thailand these past couple of years, I don’t take them at face value anymore.
The thing is ‘chinaguy’ what are you saying is fake
The video?
That no child was actually hit?
That no rag picker actually tried to help?
That the child didn’t actually die?
Has there been spin? Certainly. But you can’t keep saying ‘fake’ without saying WHAT really happened?
You haven’t been in China since 2000, according to your posts - am I correct?
Not in China it ain’t
What is out of character is that no crowd of gawkers formed
And when did you live in the Far East?
I moved from Shanghai to the US about 15 months ago. I get to China about once a month on business - usually Shenzhen these days and occaisionally Shanghai and other places. First lived in China in 1985 in the countryside.
raskolnik - I’m saying that to my non-expert eyes that the whole video could be staged. That the van did not actually run over a little girl, although the girl looks real up to right before the point of impact. It would then follow that the rest of it would also be staged.
Staged by who and to achieve what goal.
Based on my time in China: staged by some local government organ or as Even Sven points out could also be college kids as a prank that went viral. If staged, certainly not by the Central Government. Either way, it went big fast.
AS for goverment pre-planned motives or spin: it’s a propaganda opportunity to show how modern society has lost its’ way, how talking/texting on your mobile phone is a bad thing (it’s endemic in China), parents should watch their kids better, how a penniless itinerant cleaning lady has more compassion than the modern Chinese, if tragedy strikes then even an unknown poor child will end up in an ultra modern military hospital, etc.
Keep in mind that “news” or government announcements in China are almost always targeted at domestic audience. If China cares about world opinion it’s a distant second to the domestic audience. Thus, the tradeoff for looking bad internationally isn’t a major consideration compared with how many points this scores domestically.
Again, based on the information that’s been released, a lot of things don’t add up. I’ll add a new one. This takes place in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, which is a city with a pretty high GDP near Hong Kong. China’s richest and most developed province. I have never been to Zhongshan, but if someone called this in on 110 (911 equivalent), then the video should have also captured the Police coming to investigate. At least in Shanghai, I’ve had multiple personal experience of calling 110 and a motorcycle cop is there in 5-10 minutes. The kid was there for a long time, IIRC there were reports that passerbys had called it in but didn’t get involved beyond that.
YDRC. Those reports (upthread) were about a US event.
Police Arrest Two Drivers in Toddler’s Deadly Hit-and-Run in China
Police Arrest Two Drivers in Toddler's Deadly Hit-and-Run in China | Fox News
A college prank viral that somehow, despite being seen by millions of people, hasn’t had any artefacts/pixellation/lighting errors pointed out. That is impressive shit. That level of accuracy usually takes a big budget, which brings us to theory 2: a Chinese government plot to portray the people of china as callous bastards who can watch a child die and do nothing.
It’s not exactly a convincing premise.
Not him, but I have strong suspicions about someone else here.
@DearComradeC - I’ve lived in what the PRC claims as China for about 6 months all together, furthermore, I currently live in an area which has many Chinese and all my coursemates are Chinese. I also read a lot of original-language material from China.
I know what you mean. I’ve always suspected Scylla was a communist plant, the pinko bastard.
The PRC claims many things as China which they do not have any effective control over. Is the area you live in actually administered by the PRC, or is it one of those places like Taiwan or some part of India, Bhutan, Myanmar, etc.?
I was in Taiwan and HK, I also spent a fortnight in Beijing, where I was almost run over twice, something which has never occured to me in the UK.
I am currently in Australia, and I’m the only non-Chinese in my class.
Are they claiming Bhutan now?
Not all of it, but certainly some parts. Apparently they claim the Haa District, various mountains, and some Bhutanese enclaves in Tibet.
If you are talking about me, hahahahhahahaha.
i have a rep on this board for being a knee-jerk China pessimist. I spent two years in a backwoods city. While I loved my work and came to appreciate the culture, it was a difficult time for me personally and me and China butted headed basically every single day. I believe that there are some very deep, very difficult problems in modern Chinese culture (especially in regards to gender and sexuality), and that the government is nowhere as near as stable or unified as it is made out to be. I wish my friends in China the best, and I appreciate very much the friendships and hospitality I was shown. But China has a lot of “getting its shit together” to do before it can be taken seriously as a world power.
If you would care to elaborate a little on the part I bolded, I would be interested to read it.