Today's Headline:
"Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province Bans Human Flesh Search Engines with Legislation; Maximum Fine is 5000 Yuan"
Yesterday, the "Regulation for Safeguarding the Security of Xuzhou City Computer Information Systems" was passed by the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the provincial Eleventh People's Congress, and will come into effect on June 1, 2009 (风水轮流转 - the风水changes). The regulation makes detailed stipulations regarding computer security level management, protective measures, prohibited actions, and legal responsibilities, especially clearly saying "no" to the recently socially widely-attended "human flesh search engines."
"China News Service: Anti-corruption by human flesh search engines accords with China's national conditions"
The latest result of human flesh searches is the fall of Zhou Jiugeng, former director of the Jiangning District Housing Bureau of Nanjing. Zhou Jiugeng enraged netizens by claiming that "selling houses below cost price will be investigated," and was searched out as smoking high-end cigarettes costing a thousand yuan each and wearing brand-name watches worth ten thousand yuan. Before the arrival of 2009, the Jiangning District Party Committee announced his inappropriate public opinion and extravagant spending habits of purchasing high-end cigarettes with public funds, deciding to dismiss him from his position as housing bureau director, and further investigating other issues reflected by netizens...
Myself has always been an ordinary youth who respects others and loves life. From the personal privacy perspective, morally I would definitely advocate not deliberately exposing others' secrets.
However, this legislation prohibiting human flesh searches in Xuzhou came out at an extremely inappropriate time. Recently, things like the customs XX molesting children and XX directors smoking dozens of super high-end cigarettes have been constantly exposed on the network, all thanks to human flesh searches. At this point, issuing such a policy inevitably raises suspicions of preventing people from speaking.
Also, anything involving public interests usually takes five to ten years before any results are seen, and these results typically don't win much popular support.
And anything involving high-ranking officials, policies and laws always come out very quickly. On paper, these laws seem reasonable, but in practice, they are treated differently. Regarding human flesh searches involving local officials, there is naturally a swift response and strict "legal" handling, which follows this logic.
Looking at recent events can also reveal the equality phenomena under various equal societies:
Corrupting hundreds of millions of yuan, receiving suspended sentences unprecedentedly, the reason being voluntarily confessing and having good attitudes towards admitting guilt.
Using bank system errors to withdraw more than one hundred thousand yuan, receiving life sentences because of having intentional crime awareness and particularly serious circumstances.
Some rhyming satirical verses spread online always manage to explain the most realistic and harmonious phenomena currently, such as our Mr. Yin Gen:
1. ATM dispenses counterfeit money -> Bank has no responsibility
2. Online banking gets stolen -> Customer's responsibility
3. Bank gives too much money -> Customer's responsibility to return it
4. Bank gives too little money -> Not responsible after leaving the counter
5. ATM malfunctions and gives too little money -> User's responsibility
6. ATM malfunctions and gives too much money -> User considered stealing, sentenced to life imprisonment
7. Guangdong Kaiping bank manager embezzles 400 million yuan -> Sentenced to 12 years
8. ATM over-dispenses 170,000 yuan to ordinary citizen Xu Ting -> Sentenced to life
Two mouths make an official, in political arenas where words and deeds do not match, the Chinese nationals know this well. It's just that if something is done, then jumping out to set up moral standards naturally invites ridicule.
It can be seen that the supervision of rule-makers' power is still only lip service regarding democracy and people's livelihoods, while behind-the-scenes retaliation continues unabated.
The "gag order" from Xuzhou, Jiangsu, fully reflects the preemptive strategy of the power elites in Xuzhou, implementing scientific development concepts by taking preventive measures early, pioneering innovative practices in the reform frontline, setting examples for other provinces and cities to promptly emulate and promote workplace emotions, while also avoiding potential crises of Xuzhou citizens someday conducting a "human flesh search" on their own local officials.
It seems that things are not so clean around here.