Rocketfuel’s Weblog

China’s ugly side takes it to a whole new level of playing dirty.

In China, it is not uncommon for people to resort to rough justice rather than wait for the ponderous progress of the law. In 2007, the president of an affiliate of Samsung Electronics in Weihai, Shandong was attacked by two men in the restroom of a Japanese restaurant. He had his hand cut off when he resisted. After the incident, Samsung Electronics strongly protested to the local government, which led to a police investigation. It turned out that the mastermind of the attack was a former company cafeteria contractor, whose service had been rejected by the company due to low quality of the food. The contractor had hired thugs in northeastern China to retaliate…

Organized gangs extort money from small Korean businesses such as restaurants, saunas and beauty parlors, as well as bigger enterprises. A South Korean businessman, who runs a restaurant in Qingyang District, Qingdao said, “Members of Haksewui or organized gangs extort a certain amount of money from us every month. They often come and eat without paying. It’s much more difficult to do business here than in Korea.”Blackmail is common.

Late last year, a 42-year-old South Korean owner of a food factory in Pingdao killed himself because he had been unable to withstand threats and harrassment by local residents, who demanded a toll for the road leading to the main gate of the factory.(chosun)

And it’s not just foreigners who get their hands chopped off.

Lu Ling, the general manager of the China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau Nanjing company, has been sacked along with Li Zhenghui, the deputy production manager of the company and Zhao Guohua, the project manager. Zhao’s certification in project management has also been revoked, according to Yangtze Evening Newspaper.

The China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau will be driven out of Nanjing, the city’s government announced at a press conference on Monday.

Wang Chao, a Sichuan Province migrant worker and also one of the foremen of the company, went to the project department on January 16 with another worker, He Lin, to check on another foreman, He Chenbo, who had been detained by the company when asking for unpaid wages on behalf of 2,000 migrant workers.

They were chased by a group of gangsters with swords and spears as soon as they appeared, a previous report said, citing He Lin.

One of the gangsters chopped off Wang’s left hand with a sword after he saw Wang taking out his mobile phone, according to He Lin, who ran faster than Wang and was not wounded. (shanghaidaily)

At least in Korea, rotten employers have their victims get deported. Not even China’s market of executing criminals for profit seems to put enough fear into those looking to harm others.

The Olympics in China should be fun especially with the great air quality there.