Starting over the weekend and continuing on into today, the Chinese internet has been ablaze with ire at tragic incident in Hangzhou. On May 7, Mr. Tan Zhou, a 25-year-old graduate from Zhejiang University, was going home after the theater when he was hit by a car and killed by a Mr. Hu Bin. However, it is the nature of the car accident that has incensed the Chinese blogosphere and presented with it the power of the internet when it comes to swiftly addressing social issues.

What makes this incident particular, is that there were 3 boys involved from extremely wealthy families who were racing down Hangzhou’s pedestrian streets exponentially above the speed limit when they hit the 25-year-old graduate from Zhejiang. Accident or not, the Chinese Internet blogosphere is worried that the perpetrator will be able to squeeze out of the legal repercussions simply because he has money; he already avoided 2 major speeding traffic violations. While Mr. Hu Bin did not intend to hit Mr. Tan and it was obviously an accident, it is a picture that surfaced later that has become the target of the Chinese netizens’ wrath.

This would not be the first time money has gotten people with money out of trouble. All over the world this has happened for thousands of years; justice is not always served to those who can pay to avoid it. In China, however, Zhejiang represents one of the wealthiest provinces, especially exemplified in its “heavenly” capital, Hangzhou. As the economy in China has increased and standards of living have changed within the nation, there are obvious disparities like any other developed country that produce incidents. This may represent a new challenge for China. Notably, other countries have not done a necessarily good job at keeping money out of the courts and police cars. Being an American, at times I feel like US is infamous for its children of the wealthy getting away with absolutely everything under the sun, and up to a point I believe that sometimes we get jaded by the sensationalism with the media so much that Americans seem to have unbelievable apathy at times coupled with short memories when it comes to these incidents.

What’s distinguished about this unfortunate circumstance to me, is the fervor and the swiftly aggressive quality in which the Chinese netizens have solidified to address this issue. Whereas in China the media tend to be more cautious in their reporting, the Chinese blogosphere has no reservations about focusing all its energy on one matter, and will keep digging for answers until it’s sated. It’s truly amazing how quickly personal information can be dug up and posted all over the Internet using these Chinese “human flesh search engines.” In what constitutes, literally, what some people call, “internet lynching,” every private detail of an individual’s life is exposed online during an unbelievably short period of time. With 298 million Internet users in China, it doesn't take long to do a little homework.

On chinaSMACK, an English language website dedicated to reporting the happenings of the Chinese blogosphere including videos from youku, the bloggers have gone as far as to post every single contact detail from the perpetrator from his QQ, address, father’s occupation, even license plates. There are pictures of the crash, Mr. Hu Bin in the police car after the crash, and the victim, a broken Mr. Tan crumpled in the middle of the street. One photo in particular has the whole cyber community and a large part of the Hangzhou community fuming. The photo depicts the three youths after the crash joking in front of their cars. I am literally in awe at how much the Chinese netizens have been able to dig up with unrivaled detail, of which even The Smoking Gun, one of the biggest truth-exposure sites, would be envious.

This is a tragic event to a youth who was bright and talented who had gone to one of the best schools in China. It will be interesting to see what will happen since, in this new day and age, the blogs become the unbridled reporters and news spreads unimaginably lighting fast. These days, it is not the media who can quickly come up with truth and exposures as sometimes there are limitations; it is the blogosphere who is a giant always in the background and should be admired and yet markedly feared.
 

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