Damage Control, China-Style

What do you with grief-besotted parents who believe their children died thanks to shoddy government work and corruption? In China, you have the police deal with such rabble.

Chinese police dragged away more than 100 parents as they protested today over the deaths of their children in schools which collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake. Officers in Dujiangyan bundled away sobbing mothers clutching pictures of their sons and daughters, according to the Japanese news agency in Kyodo. The Associated Press said the parents were kneeling in front of the courthouse yelling "We want to sue", when police began to pull them down the street. Their children were among the 270 students who died at Juyuan school...

An official from the local government, Zao Ming, told AP: "This is not a good place to do interviews. ... In a disaster like this, there will be a lot of opinions. The government will solve their problems."

The government will hardly replace their children, I'd wager — children who died in poorly constructed schools when the quake hit, while the offspring of officialdom survived in public buildings that, surprise, were up to code.

Another nice touch:

AP said its reporter and two photographers covering the protest were dragged into the courthouse by police trying to prevent them from seeing the demonstration. They were held inside, along with two Japanese reporters, and questioned for half an hour before they were permitted to leave. A witness quoted by AP said police told parents: "The Japanese are reporting bad things about you."

Happy Olympics to you too.

UPDATE: George Costanza ... some Chinese teachers love him.

Comments

[Hermes Ten]

At least that can't happen here. No way the police would just pull them down the street. Here they'd give those terrorist parents a warning and any who didn't comply would get tasered. Then they'd drag them off to the paddy wagon.

[Dave]

"We want to sue"

They seem to be embracing western values rather well, though I doubt it will do them any good. Most likely the government will execute a few people in the construction business and call the matter closed.

[George Arndt]

Dick Cheney is envious..