In 2019, a Chinese villager, Huang Deyi, was sentenced to prison by a local court after he built a bridge illegally in his village and charged people for crossing. The case quickly caught everyone’s attention in China when Huang filed an appeal to the intermediate court in June, provoking strong responses from internet influencers, legal experts and even state media outlets. The rancor climaxed on last Saturday when Luo Xiang, one of China’s most famous criminal law scholars with a whopping 20 million online followers, published an article voicing his disapproval for Huang’s penalty.
Two competing narratives have developed since.
The First narrative:
It is applaudable that Huang Deyi took it upon himself to ease the woe of his fellow villagers by building a floating bridge on a river where there was none, & did so at his own expense. Even though he charged people for crossing the bridge, the expense was negligible compared with the trouble villagers would have had to go through without…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to China Academy Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.