The video shows a chengguan in uniform physically attacking a man on the street when another chengguan suddenly appears, delivering a flying kick in the fracas.

The mid-air kick doesn’t land on its target, however. Instead, one chengguan bumps into another, and in the confusion, an elderly man standing with his bicycle gets knocked to the ground.

As the old man falls to the ground, the surrounding bystanders all come to life. The crowd jeers and points fingers at the chengguan, while one man is seen applauding their mistake at knocking down an innocent bystander (shown above).

The two chengguan, named Liang and Zhang, have since been fired, reports say.

Here’s the video below, and a mirror link to a Miaopai platform:

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The enforcement officers were recently seen tearing down a Ronald McDonald statue outside a McDonald’s in Huadu District. The chengguan broke poor Ronald at his ankles, before eventually confiscating the entire statue.

In explaining their actions, an unidentified member of the chengguan told the Yangcheng Evening Report that the McDonald’s had repeatedly violated regulations on outdoor advertising signs: “We implored them several times to rectify the problem, but the store would not comply,” said the chengguan.

As he explained, the signs are not permitted on Guangzhou sidewalks. “Putting outdoor advertisements on a pedestrian walkway is a hindrance to pedestrian traffic and also a tripping hazard,” he said.

The chengguan went on to say that this particular McDonald’s routinely flaunted the law by removing the outdoor signs whenever the chengguan were on patrol, only to replace them once they had left. As a result, they determined that the best course of action was to confiscate their sign and Ronald, known as “Uncle McDonald” in Chinese.

The unnamed chengguan worker also said that the McDonald’s manager provoked him by saying “The Uncle McDonald standing in front of our store is also taking up space on the sidewalk (just like the outdoor advertising signs). Why don’t you take him away too?” And that was exactly what they proceeded to do, but not before severing Ronald’s leg.

The chengguan claim there could still be a happy ending for the Ronald McDonald statue. If the McDonald’s restaurant is willing to admit its wrongdoing and pay its fines, the mutilated “Uncle McDonald” would be returned to the fast food restaurant, mostly safe and sound.

The post Guangzhou Chengguan, Eager to Clean Up the Place, Start by “Arresting” Ronald McDonald appeared first on The Nanfang.

The two Chinese students (Meng Long Li, left; Shan Gao, right) were charged with assaulting another Chinese student at a karaoke club.

Known as China’s controversial Law Enforcement Bureau, chengguan are notorious for terrorizing food peddlers and homeless people off the street. They have been so successful, in fact, it looks like they are expanding all the way to US university campuses.

The trial of two Michigan State Chinese students, identified as members of the University’s chengguan “social club”, has concluded with a not guilty verdict and a hung jury, respectively. The two students, identified as 21-year-old Shan Gao and 24-year-old Meng Long Li, were charged with brutally beating another Chinese student at a local karaoke bar.

In what prosecutors referred to as “fear, intimidation and physical violence to gain notoriety among the Asian community on Michigan State’s campus”, Gao and Li used their status as prominent members of the school’s chengguan to intimidate other members of the Asian community. While in China, the chengguan title conjures all sorts of negative connotations, Michigan State viewed them as simply another organized student gang.

The victim, who was attacked on Chinese New Year’s Eve 2014, testified that Li struck him in the head with a plastic pitcher until it broke. Gao allegedly blocked the victim’s friends from intervening. The attack left the victim with a large gash on his head that required 10 staples and three stitches. The victim further testified that members of the University’s chengguan, including Gao, drove around in luxury cars with chengguan stickers to clearly identify membership.

The prosecution vehemently disagreed with the defence’s characterization of chengguan as a simple “social group”, and that the assault was nothing more than a disagreement between two students. Rather, the prosecution argued that the group was a “gang”, and that Li and Gao flaunted their gang colours to let everyone know that they “ran the Chinese scene on campus.” Tuition at the university for international students is more than $40,000 a year, and over 60 percent of the school’s international students come from China.

In the end, Gao was found not guilty, and the jury was unable to come to a decision regarding Li. The prosecution is now contemplating whether or not to pursue a new trial.  Either way, it would appear that regardless of your characterization of chengguan, they have officially reached University campuses stateside.

The post China’s Much-Reviled Chengguan, Coming to an American University Near You appeared first on The Nanfang.

A sinkhole opened up in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, on January 24. It turns out it was created by a basement built illegally by Li Baojun, a representative of China’s National People’s Congress. The sinkhole forced 15 residents to be evacuated from their homes while a four-story house teetered precariously to one side. The hole was so wide it stretched out into the road in front.

Li had previously been penalized for making illegal renovations to his home last July.

Li had not obtained authorizations to build the basement, and many concerned residents had called the local chengguan hotline but their calls were not answered.

Crews have spent three days filling the 1.900-square meter hole with sand and cement. The street has since re-opened, and repairs are underway to fix the teetering home.

Related:

• No Elevator for Your 5th Floor Walkup? Man Builds His Own (Illegal) One
• Guy Builds a Forest on a Guangzhou Apartment Building to Hide Illegal Floors
• Demolition Begins on Hidden Forest House in Guangzhou
• Dongguan “castle in the sky” becomes latest controversial structure
• Police officer busted for having a decked-out illegal gambling den in Shenzhen

Photos: China News Network, iFeng

The post NPC Rep Builds Illegal Basement 18 Meters Deep, Leads to Massive Sinkhole appeared first on The Nanfang.

A 21 year-old expat from the UK named Leah has become Henan’s newest pedestrian traffic warden responsible for herding pedestrians in the city of Zhuzhou and ensuring traffic laws are maintained, reports Yangtse.

Like many cities, Zhuzhou has a problem with pedestrians that don’t follow signals at intersections and end up congesting traffic — and it may have found its solution in Leah.

Though Leah has only a limited grasp of the Chinese language, her “foreignness” compels city residents to follow her command where they would normally ignore their fellow countryman.

Leah and her friend Ewan recently graduated from university and had been in Zhuzhou looking for work as English teachers for a month. After being hired as a warden, Leah immediately went to task memorizing the important phrases of her job. So far, she can only say things like:

• “Hello, please be aware and abide by traffic regulations.”
• “Please be aware and comply with civilized etiquette.”
• “I love Zhuzhou, and I hope we can both make this city into a beautiful place.”

At first blush, perhaps it would seem unlikely for a Chinese person to follow the commands of a foreigner that can’t converse in Chinese nor is intimately familiar with its local customs. However, an unnamed resident sums up why they listen to her:

As there are international friends present, how can we (residents) illegally cross the road without feeling any shame?

The societal construct the Zhuzhou chengguan is employing is “face”, the need to maintain respect from others. If a Zhuzhou pedestrian were to illegally run a red light in the presence of “normal” Chinese chengguan, they wouldn’t risk losing face as much because they wouldn’t care about the reaction.

However, if this was done in the presence of Leah, a foreigner, the Chinese would risk losing face to the entire outside world she represents. Furthermore, the face lost wouldn’t just be his or her own, but the entire country, which the offender represents.

I mean, just what would Leah think? Of China, no less.

Photo: Yangtse

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While vendors will be allowed to apply for a license free of charge, it will be the government that will determine where and when they can do business.

READ: Trial System to License Guangdong Street Peddlers
Will Make Street Food “Safer”

Street vendors operating outside authorized zones and times will still be breaking the law. Furthermore, the new legislation only covers street vendors that sell food.

China’s current laws do not cover streetside food vendors because their businesses are deemed to be too small. Besides not being legally recognized, these food vendors are unregulated and aren’t inspected by any public health authority.

Conflicts between street vendors and chengguan, known as the municipal authority that enforces laws against the vendors, are a regular occurrence.

Related:

• Chengguan in Guangzhou to Become Even Scarier
• Netizens Outraged as Chengguan Beat Mother in Front of 2 Year-Old Child in Guangzhou
• Chengguan Outsource Work to Gangsters in Shenzhen District
• Chengguan Call for Sympathy – Really – After One is Stabbed Seven Times by Peddlers 
• Shenzhen’s Chengguan Sent Abroad for Training, Public Wonders What they Learned
• Chen Guangbiao Says Homeless American Rejected Cash Fearing US Chengguan

Photo: BJCG, hinnews

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As students take the examination, they will be accompanied by two police officers with guns that will be stationed at every examination room. Furthermore, armed police will patrol the perimeter of the examination sites and investigate anything within a distance of 200 meters.

READ: Student in Guangzhou Stabbed in Throat Just After Completing the Gaokao

This may seem excessive as gaokao examinations can be counted upon to be the most quiet of places that would ever be the site of a disturbance, but that’s actually the point: Police may sent to the gaokao exams for the purpose of preserving the peace, literally.

Over in Fengtai District in Beijing, chengguan had given a written proposal to the “dancing aunties” that dance in a plaza located next to the No.12 Middle School. The chenguan, otherwise known as city management workers with a bad public reputation, had requested the “dancing aunties” stop playing loud music in the square and dancing so as not to disturb the 400 students preparing for the gaokao .

READ: Netizens Outraged as Chengguan Beat Mother in Front of
2 Year-old Child in Guangzhou

The proposal was rejected. The dancing grannies, estimated at two to three hundred strong, continued to dance once the chengguan had left.

“Dancing grannies” have been a formidable force in Chinese society that many residents have taken offense against. “Dancing grannies” are known for disturbing of the public with the loud music played during their dancing, and have come to prominence with a picture of them performing in the square in front of the Louvre.

Locally, the issue of “dancing grannies” had come to light recently when the mayor of Sydney expressed interest in the activity during a visit to Guangzhou, to which an overwhelming majority of Chinese netizens responded with “Take them all, please.”

READ: Mayor of Sydney Interested in Importing China’s “Granny Dancing”

We imagine that armed police will be able to help preserve the peace at a gaokao examination, and perhaps by being armed, police will be able to win any arguments had against “dancing grannies”.

UPDATE 3:30pm, June 5, 2014: It’s become official: Shenzhen has now put noise restrictions upon any area within 500 meters of an examination site during this weekend, and during the upcoming senior high school examinations taking place on June 21 and 22.

While dancing grannies may be affected, the noise ban seems to be more directed at construction sites, putting a RMB 30,000 fine on any site that violates the regulations.

Related:

• Shenzhen’s Chengguan Sent Abroad for Training, Public Wondering What They Learned
• Chengguan in Guangzhou to Become Even Scarier
• Guangdong Chengguan Compete for Geek Cred Against Google Glass

Photos: Xinhua, the Nanfang

The post Armed Police to Keep Foshan Gaokao Exams Quiet From Dancing Grannies [UPDATE] appeared first on The Nanfang.

An urban management officer (otherwise known as chengguan) collected a mother and seven pups from a market in Hangzhou after the owner complained the mother had become more vicious after giving birth. The officer took the dogs to the animal shelter to have them put down. In order to deal with the newborn pups, a middle-aged staffer at the shelter lifted the pups into the air one-by-one and threw them down with tremendous force to kill them, all in full view of the mother. Some were so young they were unable to open their eyes.

The Chinese internet obviously became outraged after the photos surfaced. SCMP has translated a few comments:

“If the mother dog should be killed for hurting a man, what should we do to the man that has killed seven puppies?” wrote one microblogger.

“It’s not a stray dog shelter, but a slaughter house!” another wrote.

An animal welfare association based in Hangzhou said many stray dogs were treated cruelly when they were sent to be “controlled” by the relevant government departments.

It said: “The city administration and law enforcement bureau should make public how you “control” the stray dogs … by ‘control’ do you mean all stray dogs should be killed?”

This is just the latest case of extreme animal abuse in China, and one wonders what needs to happen before dogs are dealt with humanely.

Trevor Metz, who previously owned “One-eyed Jack” before he was beaten to death in Beijing, said confiscating unregistered pets is not the problem; rather, the issue lies in dealing with the pets in a humane way after they are confiscated.

One hopes the authorities in China take his advice.

Home page photo credit: SCMP

The post Another Brutal Dog Killing, This Time at a Shelter in Hangzhou appeared first on The Nanfang.

A person in a front office position with a high-profile school in Beijing found himself witnessing the deadly beating of his own dog, in broad daylight, on the streets of Beijing on Saturday as he was taking the dog for a walk.

Known as “One-eyed Jack” (it was missing an eye already), the dog had been taken care of by Trevor Metz of renowned Beijing burger bar Plan B in Shuangjing for “three to four months”. Metz had already taken in a couple of other dogs – all with proper registration – so found a loving home for ol’ Jack.

That’s when the story took an ugly turn. I’ll let Jack’s owner explain what happened on Saturday, in his own words:

I’d taken the dog out early Saturday morning. I usually take him on a path in the compound where there’s some garden and space for him to do his business. I took him further this time because he hadn’t been out since the early evening on Friday. After about 10 minutes of walking, I spotted 3 guys by the roadside, who approached me and stopped me. Two of them were wearing Chengguan uniforms, and one was in plain clothes. One of them asked to see the dog’s registration photo ID card thing, and I told them I had only had him a very short time and that I was in the process of getting it. I offered to show them his vaccinations, and the info I’d gathered on registration.

He told me he didn’t care about any of that, and that if I didn’t have the ID card for him they were going to take him right now. You know the dog wasn’t keen on strange men, and he was getting fidgety. I insisted that it was all being done and that he was safe, vaccinated and always kept on the leash. He started to get angry with me and told me I was out of order. I’m not exactly a picture of calmness myself when faced with surly idiots who are wasting my time, and I argued back. He told me he was gonna get me in big trouble for not having the proper documents. I told him I was gonna walk on and there was nothing he could do while I was still getting my documents sorted. I started to walk forward, the dog growled at them and let out one bark. The guy pushed me back and one of the others grabbed the leash from me. They had some kind of baton with them and they whacked the dog over the head so hard he barely yelped, he just fell down. I protested and went to shield him but the other guy pushed me back while they beat the dog 3 more times. They bundled him into some black backpack, and got into an unmarked car (looked like one of the heiche cars, wasn’t an official chengguan car). They drove off and left me there.

I’m pretty sure at least two of them were a bit drunk. Not very much so, but they had the red-faced “I’ve had baijiu” faces. And as I say, one of them was in plain clothes, and the car was unmarked.

It all just happened so fast…it was a massive blur. It was also raining, cloudy, polluted and muggy out there, it was hard to see things going on. I was just left there shouting at them trying to get a better look at the car as it left. It was a horrifying experience in so many ways. I mean…they just bludgeoned the dog without any provocation, and they looked absolutely crazy. A fear gripped me as I worried if they were going to whack me next as well and leave me there. I’ve seen some pretty messed up things in my life overseas, but the way these bastards flaunted their authority, savagely killed an innocent, sweet and gentle animal and acted threateningly to me without provocation…it made my skin crawl.

After speaking with police on Saturday, they told me that there was nothing they would do about it because the dog is not a registered pet, and therefore not legally anyone’s property. As a stray, they claim to have no ability to pursue action for the dog. At this point I just felt utterly frustrated, defeated and helpless. I also was consumed with guilt and sorrow. I’d taken the dog in to protect him from this very fate as chengguan or police may have combed the area around Shuangjing [a neighbourhood in Beijing] for strays and found him out there in the art street and taken him away. I fed him, took care of him and had him vaccinated as part of a journey to legitimacy that would protect him from such a fate. He was the most loving, affectionate and sweet dog that I’ve ever known. I also had some interest expressed from friends in adopting him permanently from me. I feel awful that despite my best intentions, this unspeakable thing happened to him. Sometimes it just hits me again, flashbacks of thinking of the sight of him falling to the ground as that barbarian whacked him. It makes me cry, it makes me feel sick. It’s disturbing my sleep and the feeling doesn’t go away easily.

Beijing has been known to be tough on dogs, and several crackdowns on illegal dogs have been implemented over the years. But this… this is beyond the pale.

RIP Jack. You’ll be missed.

(Note: Jack’s owner’s name is withheld at his request.)

One-Eyed Jack

Photo: courtesy owner of One-Eyed Jack

Related:

• Another Brutal Dog Killing, This Time at a Shelter in Hangzhou
• Shocking: The Brazen Capture of a Dog in Broad Daylight in Guangdong
• Dog killer in Shaoguan finally caught… when he used his poison on a human
• Struggle between dog eaters and dog lovers in Dongguan

The post Dog Beaten to Death in Beijing in Front of Foreign Owner appeared first on The Nanfang.

First, Jiang Yifan, a Changzhou chengguan (城管, or “city management officer”) in Jiangsu Province, touted his latest gear — Google Glass head wear— on Weibo. Then, Guangzhou chengguan fired back by brandishing a recording device that rivals Google Glass, but at only a tenth of its cost.

The mysterious “law enforcement recording device” used by the Guangzhou chengguan is the size of a brooch and can be pinned to the front of a guard’s uniform. Compared to the estimated RMB 10,000 cost of Google Glass, the equivalent made-in-China device only costs RMB 1,400. Moreover, it is equipped with a recording camera and a charger, Yangcheng Evening News reported on April 22.

The mysterious recording device used by Guangzhou chengguan. Photo credit: Yangcheng Evning News

“Compared with Google Glass, our law enforcement recording device is easier to operate and lightweight,” said one chengguan who claimed to have used the device.

Google Glass, a wearable computer, boasts a hands-free function where a wearer can record or take photos by blinking or through the use of voice command. According to the Guangzhou chengguan, their device also features a hand-free function. An urban guard can press the device’s button and record a scene while still engaging his ongoing task. (Which doesn’t sound ‘hands-free’ to us.)

Despite the competition for tech superiority, the chengguan in the two cities both agreed the use of such high-tech devices (if the unknown made-in-China one is able to qualify for such a title) will better help them deal with often violent incidents between chengguan and street vendors. More importantly, it may serve to dispel accusations of the chengguan’s propensity towards brutality and violence.

The latest such violent confrontation took place in Cangnan, Zhejiang Province. The clash on Saturday is said to have injured six when the crowds retaliated on chengguan after seeing the officers violently beating an onlooker when the officers’ requests of asking the onlooker to stop filming were turned down.

It is not known if the chengguan in that incident were wearing a Google Glass device or its Chinese equivalent, nor if they were able to operate its hands-free feature when they were getting their asses handed to them.

Home page photo: Chengguan Jiang Yifan wears the Google Glass patrolling the streets.

Photo credit: Jiangsu Net 

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