A recent viral video in China features a portly, rather clumsy-looking man stomping on the head of another smaller, skinnier man in Yan'an, Shaanxi.
The fatso's blue uniform confirms he is not a WWE performer but, in fact, a member of the municipal law-enforcement squad, aka chengguan – but exactly what law he was enforcing on the poor shop-owner is unclear.
The laws of gravitation, perhaps?
The episode took an even stranger turn two weeks later though, when the following apology was posted online:
"Had I been able to calm down and constrain myself, the violence would have been avoided. I apologize to those who were hurt in the incident."
Contrary to what you might be thinking, this expression of remorse is, in fact, from Liu Guofeng, the victim, and is clearly the result of a negotiation between his agent – a practice attorney – and the local chengguan bureau.
We hope it didn't cost those crafty chengguan too much hush money, otherwise they might find themselves needing to earn a bit of cash on the side – not unlike their peers in Wuhan. These economical ‘law enforcers’ were captured by netizens on film selling teacups at the local night market.
Rather winningly, Gui Wenjing of the local district chengguan bureau explained two days later that, actually, they were ”operating an undercover mission aiming to experience street vendors' lives so as to improve their work” – his evidence being a diary he has kept since May 1 when the "mission" started.
To make it more convincing, those chengguan also published the journals he wrote on May 13, 14 and 16 – they're riveting – but when netizens questioned why his detailing of the weather (“sunny today”), was different from that of the local meteorological station’s (“cloudy”), the explanation began to sound like a shocking lie, and a bad one at that.
The Beijing Chengguan – we're not sure that's standard issue uniform.
Fortunately, the chengguan officers in Beijing are a taking a more relaxed stance by letting themselves be beaten up (above and top), the front cover of the Beijing News reported. The “offenders” were two women and a man selling cold noodles from tricycles on Jun 16. While trying to confiscate their vehicles, the chengguan squad leader was slapped, punched and spat in the face, but did nothing in reply except shout to his fellow members, "Don’t do anything!"
Thumbs up for the Beijing Chengguan!
Additional reporting by Karoline Kan.
You can follow Valentina on Twitter at @valentinaluo or That's Beijing at @thats_beijing
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