In China, Power Is Arrogant
By YU HUAMay09,2013
BEIJING
In late2010, Chinese customs officialsimposed an import taxof1,000 yuan(about$150 then) on every iPad brought into the country. Ignoring the fact that iPads differ in features and prices, officials set a single tariff:20 percent of the tablet’s listed5,000-yuan value. People who paid3,000 yuan for an iPad in Hong Kong— where smartphones and other electronics are much cheaper than on the mainland— were charged the same tariff. Even Chinese tourists returning home with their own iPads, bought in China, were taxed!
This levy, imposed without prior warning, provoked a torrent of criticism. Even the Commerce Ministry registered disapproval, fearing that the levy would violate China’s commitments as a member of the World Trade Organization, which it joined in2001.
As I set off for an overseas trip in January2011, I asked the staff at the Beijing airport how to report that I would be leaving the country with an iPad, so as to avoid being taxed when I returned.
The first four people I asked said they didn’t know; the fifth told me the levy had been revoked.(In fact, the tax wascut in half, but not rescinded entirely.)
「Why hasn’t this change been publicized?」 I asked.
「Why should it be?」 he retorted.「When first implemented, it wasn’t publicized, either.」
If the central government’s decrees are opaque, local authorities』 can be downright ridiculous. In2001, hospital officials in the southern city of Shenzhen specified that nurses should show precisely eight teeth when smiling. In2003, Hunan Province, in central China, stipulated that the breasts of female candidates for civil-service positions should be symmetrical. The next year, public safety officials in the northern city of Harbin ruled that policemen whose waistlines exceeded36 inches had to go. In2006, transportation officials in Zhejiang Province, just south of Shanghai, banned employees from sporting facial hair. The following year, in an effort to reduce the school-dropout rate, Pinghe County in Fujian Province, on the southeast coast, decreed that a junior high school diploma was required to marry.
Several of these rules have since been revoked, but their wacky and arbitrary nature demonstrates the arrogance of power in China. One can imagine all too easily their creators— sitting in comfortable armchairs, drinking high-grade tea and smoking fine cigarettes— discussing the issues at hand as if they were purely intellectual abstractions, never considering how ordinary people might react. That people will be unhappy is no cause for concern because, for so long, the power of the state has trampled on individual rights. Only when rules are so onerous that they stir actual protest do higher-ups take notice:「You guys are just making a mess of things,」 they』ll tell their bureaucrat underlings.「This is not good for social stability.」 The rules are then quietly rescinded— sometimes.
Often, regulations are even inconsistent with national laws. Take, for example, revised driving regulations that went into effect on Jan.1. To reduce the accident rate on Chinese highways, the Public Security Ministry came out with what have been called particularly harsh rules. The imposition of a six-point penalty for running a yellow light produced howls of protest.(In China, a12-point penalty leads to revocation of a license.)
To many, the yellow-light rule seemed certain to cause an increase in rear-end collisions. Even the official media raised questions.「According to Clause26 of China’s traffic safety law, signals consist of red, green and yellow lights,」 the state-controlled Xinhua News Agency patiently explained.「The red light prohibits passage, the green light allows it, while the yellow light signifies warning. Each signal has a separate function, and now to nullify the distinction between yellow light and red light is not only unfeasible but also in conflict with current law.」 The ministry backed down and downgraded the penalty to a warning.
During all the kerfuffle, a joke began to circulate:
A man fails to return home one wintry night. When he shows up the next morning, his wife demands an explanation.
「The traffic light at the corner kept blinking yellow,」 he says,「and it didn’t go back to operating normally until just now. I would have been docked six points if I』d run the yellow light— or nine if I』d tried to make a U-turn at an intersection.」
「Why didn’t you at least call me?」
「You get docked three points if you use a phone while driving.」
The man is shivering uncontrollably. His wife asks:「How did you get this cold, just sitting in the car?」
「It was snowing so hard I had to keep clearing off the license plate— you’re docked a full12 points if the number is obscured.」
Yu Hua, the author of「China in Ten Words,」 is a guest columnist. This column was translated byAllan H. Barrfrom the Chinese.
