On April 23, 1979, the People's Daily had an
exclusive news report: In Heilongjiang province, the largest corrupt gang was
busted. The criminal Wang Shouxin and others were arrested and
investigated for the crimes of sharing illegal profits and then hiding and
covering up the loot.
On February 28, 1980, this principal criminal
of this internationally known crime -- Heilongjiang Province Bingyuan County
Combustible Fuel manager and party secretary Wang Shouxin -- faced the legal
consequences. You can call her a "corrupt official" but she is a merely
a manager of a combustible fuel company. Nobody knows what the rank
might be in the hierarchy of officialdom but it is probably the lowest
possible.
A few years ago, the process of her execution
was published by the photographer at the scene and then broadly circulated on
the Internet. Recently, someone posted these photos on Sohu.com.
Within a few days (ending 4pm on May 3), those photos had been seen by 1.132
million persons. The popularity was astonishing.
Ordinarily speaking, when a life is
terminated, one should be studying the pathos of the death, no matter how much
this person deserves to die. But why are so many people looking at these
photos in so many different ways (calmly, emotionally, carefully or
thoughtfully)? Some people even long for this scene to occur today.
Now that is truly thought-provoking.
Today as it was thirty years ago, everybody
hates those people who loot state resources through bribery and corruption.
Therefore, when people see photos of a corrupt government official being
executed, they are pleased. However, there are some differences in
feelings between today and thirty years ago.
Thirty years ago, a case involving several
hundred thousand RMB results in the death penalty. Today a case
involving hundreds of millions only results in a suspended death penalty.
In Heilongjiang province, the later and greatest corrupt female government
official Han Jiazhi was given a suspended death penalty for seven million RMB
in ill-gotten gains. The former Heilongjiang governor and later State
Land Resources Department director Tian Fengshan was given a life sentence for
corruption involving 4.98 million RMB. If Wang Shouxin was executed in
her time, why should Han Jiazhi and Tian Fengshan be allowed to live?
... Thirty years ago, there would a public
meeting after which the convict is taken out to the execution field and shot.
Today, many localities use lethal injections for execution and also give
certain rights to those who were given life sentences and deprived of their
political rights.
Therefore, fewer and fewer death penalties
are carried out. The number of public executions has also decreased.
Correspondingly, the deterrent effect against corrupt officials has weakened.
This is why people become nostalgic for the photos of the execution of
government officials several decades ago. Apart from this current series
of photos, another series entitled <Mao Zedong personally signed the approval
to execute seven criminals> has also been popular on the Internet recently.
It is hard to explain all the reasons but one
thing is quite obvious: if we can be more decisive, powerful and open in
punishing government corrupt officials, people would be less concerned about
events that occurred several decades ago.
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