At the end of 1999, I returned to my hometown, a village in northern Jiangsu Province called Yanmingfang, after living abroad for many years. As a wanderer who had not returned for many years, I naturally hoped to find some surprising changes in the land of my hometown. But after living in my hometown for many days, my wish did not come true, and I did not feel the atmosphere of “well-off society” contained in “Yanmingfang”. Instead, I heard mostly lamentations, especially the three lawsuits that I cannot forget. As a researcher of Chinese rural society, I would like to briefly describe the three lawsuits as follows, in order to provide a common source of reflection for my colleagues and a specimen for future generations of historians to understand the Chinese countryside at the end of the 20th century.
My father’s lawsuit
My father was the head of a department that ran a port in his hometown. The port, located along the canal, was once very prosperous and at one Time made hundreds of thousands of yuan in profits each year. In the rural areas of northern Jiangsu, where township enterprises were generally in the doldrums, that glory was already very attractive, and the manager of the port became a famous local “entrepreneur”. In the autumn of 1995, the leaders of the township suddenly wanted the port to expand and run a cement plant with an annual output of 100,000 tons, and the eight million yuan of funds needed were not only loans from the bank, but also two million yuan from local fund-raising. Fund-raising first from the port employees, cadres of 10,000 yuan each, the general staff is 3,000 to 5,000 yuan. Although the fund-raising was mandatory internally, the annual interest rate promised was as high as 20%, so not only the internal fund-raising goal was accomplished, but also the socially oriented fund-raising received a wide response. Several families in the village who had “spare money” also approached my father and asked to handle it on their behalf. In the end, 25,000 yuan was handed over in my father’s name.
But just as many similar capital-raising factories had failed, the cement factory was in a bad way. The “entrepreneur” was then promoted to deputy secretary of the township party committee, and the new factory manager was a master who only knew how to make money for his own Family, and the factory was built without a single day of formal production. And the bank loan and from private capital raising, soon after the return of the deadline. The bank began to call for the repayment of the loan, and individuals who had paid the capital raised have come to the door to collect debts. The two uncles in the village who had previously asked my father for “help” also kept pressing him to collect the principal and interest on their behalf. It is not that my father did not take the initiative, because he himself also paid 10,000 yuan. But he was faced with a factory manager who took an “indifferent” attitude, and the result was inconclusive. Finally, unable to resist the constant visits of his brothers, the father, who was in his sixties, issued an ultimatum to his boss: “If you don’t return the money, I’ll sue! The factory manager blandly replied, “Then you can sue!”
Since then, my father has been dealing with the court. Although it was a lawsuit that “even a three-year-old child can clearly determine,” he still asked someone to buy wine. The court first said it was better to mediate, and then mediation failed, but also decisively sentenced down: a certain cement factory must return a certain month before a certain date, a certain day, a certain three people’s capital (loan) money plus interest 31,246 yuan.
Predictably, the cement factory did not return the money within the time limit set by the court. The father then applied to the court to enforce the law and seize some of the cement factory’s assets. The asset that was sealed was a forklift, but it was not immediately exchangeable for cash. The court instructed the father, “If you want cash, you will be responsible for selling the forklift.” The father soon found a buyer who was willing to pay $20,000 for the forklift. He then rushed to court again. The court said that this was not enough, and that the valuation had to be done by the Bureau of real estate, and that if the valuation was higher than your selling price, you would have to pay some of the money to make up for it. The father asked who would hire the price bureau? The judge said, of course, your client invited, you can not see that we have an endless number of cases in hand?
The father started to run the price bureau again. Of course, the price bureau is also very busy, he ran three times, also bought wine, finally let the price bureau people take the time to the scene to estimate the price. Probably the alcohol also played a role, the valuation also happens to be 20,000 yuan.
But the father got back from the court only 12,000 yuan. The costs deducted included more than 1,000 yuan in court fees – that should have been paid by the defendant who “lost” the case, but the defendant did not pay, in fact, they did not “accept” from the beginning to the end. The 12,000 yuan had to be deducted from the de facto costs of the lawsuit, including the father’s own travel expenses – he made 18 trips to the district –, including buying meals, and paying for gas for the court car. Allocating the recovered money in proportion to what was paid at the time of the fund-raising, the father ended up with $3,000. It took him three and a half years to do so. The good news is that he was already in his 70s, so there was no “opportunity cost” for the time he spent.
The teacher’s lawsuit
One afternoon in September 1996, he rode his bicycle to the school 5 miles away. The road was a recently completed district road, 15 meters wide, with a clear white line in the middle. The teacher dodged, but failed to avoid it, and was knocked down with his car. There was soon a puddle of blood on the ground.
The young man on the motorcycle also fell. He got up and got on his motorcycle to run. But he was stopped by students and teachers at the school. According to several teachers who were present, the young man reeked of alcohol.
The teacher’s colleagues quickly stopped a passing van and took him to the township hospital, while calling the police. The traffic police soon came too, looked at the scene, took photos, asked about witnesses, also impounded the motorcycle and said it must be dealt with as soon as possible.
The teacher was diagnosed with a fractured rib on his right side and needed to be hospitalized. On the fourth day, accompanied by a deputy mayor of the township, a cadre-like middle-aged man came, introduced as the party secretary of a neighboring township, the brother of the young man on the motorcycle, to greet him on behalf of the “party”. The secretary took out two hundred-dollar bills from his jacket pocket and said they were for the teacher’s medical expenses. The teacher’s mother, who is also the aunt of the family, felt that this was an attempt to “pass the buck” and blocked the offer.
The teacher’s family and the school’s leaders kept urging the traffic police to deal with it. They wanted the traffic police to pay attention to two points: first, the perpetrator was crossing the median of the road and hit the person injured, should be 100% responsible; second, the perpetrator is drunk driving, should also be criminally responsible. But a month later, they were surprised by the conclusion: the teacher and the young man were each responsible for 50 percent. The reason is that the young man crossed the center line is to turn around, is normal driving, and does not violate the traffic rules; and the teacher did not avoid in time, so also have responsibility. As for the drunk driving, because there was no alcohol reaction after the verification, so the witness’s statement was not enough to prove. In addition, the young man’s motorcycle was also damaged and the cost of repair was not yet known, so he could not yet be allowed to take money for the teacher’s injuries.
The teacher’s treatment for his injuries cost a total of more than $4,000. After being able to move around after six months, he began to run the traffic police force constantly, but never got a conclusion that satisfied him more than the one mentioned above. When he later learned that the captain of the traffic police was once a subordinate of the brother of the perpetrator who was a secretary, he began to run to the disciplinary committee and the supervisory bureau, and eventually filed an administrative lawsuit. More than two years have passed, and the administrative lawsuit has not come to fruition. He has not been able to receive his salary from the school for more than ten months, and he has not been able to return the debts he owed for the treatment and rehabilitation of his injuries.
The lawsuit of “Ergo’s” father-in-law
On the morning of the day I was to leave for Home, a person who should be called “second brother” suddenly came to my home. The “second brother” and I do not share the same surname, nor do we have any relatives, but we just need to be addressed as such according to the custom of the countryside. He used to be the branch secretary of the administrative village to which this village belongs, but it seems that he did not do to the satisfaction of his superiors, and was dismissed not long ago, and is now a deputy director of the township civil affairs office.
It turns out that his old father-in-law had an accident and came to me to discuss solutions. His father-in-law lives in a neighboring township ten miles away, and two mornings ago, he took his five-year-old grandson to the market and met an acquaintance on the way. What’s the use of good looks? What’s the point of being good-looking? These days you can’t be a government official!” And turn to urge the grandson: “go back to let your father do a good job, and when you grow up also for you to buy an official do.”
I don’t know if this whine has a reference and sent, anyway, just passed by the village clerk heard. The secretary did not hesitate to get out of the car and throw punches and kicks at the old man, and then ran to the police station to sue, saying “× × × × slander the party and the government!” And the police station of a young police officer on the wind and move, immediately arrested the old man, and send word to his family: take three thousand dollars to collect people!
Faced with the “second brother” expectant eyes, I do not know how to answer. Although I have been a journalist for several years, and now “overseas” overseas, in his opinion is “knowledgeable”, but really can not come up with any good ideas to. However, if I don’t come up with some ideas, I feel sorry for people, because although he was once the secretary in charge of more than 3,000 villagers, and now also belongs to the “official”, but the “official” is really not very big, otherwise there is no need to turn to an “intellectual” who lives by selling literature. “intellectuals”. I think I should tell him the honest truth.
“Do you want a public or private settlement? Of course, this depends on your level of trust in the current supervisory authorities. If you want to go public, you can reflect to the Public Security Bureau, the Procuratorate or the Discipline Inspection Commission, and maybe the illegally detained police officer can be dealt with. But that will take time, and may not get the desired end. If you want to private, find an acquaintance, to the chief of the neighboring police station to say hello, so that the old man released as soon as possible, so as not to eat more suffering, and then let the young police officer said a debt. But then it is not good enough to sue again, your husband will have to eat a dumb loss. Because you have to consider your relationship with the relationship you entrusted ……”
Of course, when I said the above “idea”, I actually have no idea myself, and a little uneasy, and even feel ashamed. Why was I so worldly and “cynical”? Why couldn’t I have persuaded “second brother” and his father-in-law’s family to sue, or even demand “state compensation”? As a “scholar” who studies rural China, do I have any principles? I sent “second brother” out of the house in silence, and then I also set off on my own way home.
Later, I heard that “second brother” found the head of the neighboring township – the man had served in the township and had a superior-subordinate relationship with him – and took his father-in-law back home. The police station did not apologize, but only said a few “misunderstandings”.
Today, no one denies that there is serious and widespread “corruption” in Chinese society, including “judicial corruption”. But no one (including those who hold the power of supervision and all kinds of scholars) seems to have seriously studied the consequences of corruption. On whom does it fall more often than not? What kind of financial, physical and even spiritual damage do the victims who are forced to swallow its consequences suffer? If I were to ask the chronicler of this article to tell us how he feels, I would say that the small farmers in the countryside – the huge group of people who are crushed in the lower strata of Chinese society – are undoubtedly the main victims. They are the least able to withstand corruption, yet it is easy for corruption to overwhelm them. Their blood, sweat and tears seem to be the nourishment for some people, and even the lubricant for the wheels of the times.
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