O
n April 14, 2016, using a fruit
knife, a 22-year-old man stabbed
thugs who had used violence
when calling in debts from his mother who
had borrowed from a local loan shark. The
incident happened in an office at the fac-
tory his mother owned in Guanxian, an un-
derdeveloped county in eastern Shandong
Province, and when the police arrived, the
son was still in the vicinity. One of the 11
gangsters, Du Zhihao, later died in hospital
and three others were injured. On February
17, 2017, the young man, Yu Huan, was sen-
tenced to life imprisonment for intentional
injury and ordered to pay about US$12,500
in compensation to the two severely injured
men and to the relatives of the dead.
A request to have the case appealed was
lodged on March 24, 2017, then on March
25, a report by Southern Weekly, a newspaper,
detailing the abuse the mother had faced trig-
gered public outrage over the verdict and was
reposted and shared widely by portal websites
and on social media. Many online comments
criticised the sentencing for going against hu-mane values. Some legal experts also publicly
defended the young man’s behaviour. They
believed that Yu Huan was innocent or at
least deserved much more merciful punish-
ment as he was defending the lives and dig-
nity of his mother and himself in an emer-
gency. Some commentators even hailed him
for having the guts to do what a son should
do for his mother in this situation.
Under such public pressure, the Supreme
People’s Procuratorate of China declared on
March 26 that its procurators were being
sent to Shandong to review all the evidence
of the case and see whether Yu Huan had
committed “justifiable homicide,” “excessive
defence” or committed “intentional injury.”
Any possible police misconduct would also
be subject to this investigation. The same day
the provincial high court vowed to fairly and
openly hear the appeal filed by both Yu Huan
and the family of Du Zhihao, who was the
father of four children.
It is up to the new investigations to find
out what really happened in that office at
that time and who should be held respon-sible. The only thing that is known for sure
so far is that usury that had haunted the
mother and her company long before led to
horror and tragedy. While public opinion has
shown a great deal of sympathy toward the
young man’s acts, it is much more divided
when it comes to his mother’s involvement
in borrowing illegally.
Violent high-interest loans, or loan shark-
ing, constitutes a crime across much of the
world. However, the role of such lending
itself in an economy is a much more contro-
versial issue than simply the stigma attached
to the individual lenders and borrowers in-
volved. Usury in China is nothing new. The
recent Shandong tragedy has made it more
controversial than ever, due to China’s cur-
rent broader economic context. The debates
on whether it is a lifeline or a trap for those in
financial difficulties are similar to those that
have been held in the US. Besides, the brutal-
ity and spread of the business in China has
been attributed to the absence of crucial legal
protections. Experts hope that the bloody
story will force a step toward fixing urgentUsury in China
in THE BLOOD RED
A recent tragedy has put loan sharks in the public eye. Sympathy or anger are not the solutions to
avoiding further incidents. Legal process and exit mechanisms are
By Li Jia
E COnOMY