High compensation can end up hurting everyone
- Source: Global Times
- [22:52 March 11 2010]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Xiao Kailin
Life is cheap, but it's cheaper in some places than others. The row over differing levels of compensation for rural and urban Chinese is still going on, but now a new gap has emerged, between Chinese and foreigners.
Chen Rui, a Singaporean, was killed in a traffic accident in Hunan Province. The local court decided his family should be paid nearly 800,000 yuan by the perpetrator as compensation, which is much more than the compensation Chinese families receive from fatal road accidents.
Some people suggest that the compensation paid for death of Chinese citizens is too low, and does not match the rapid economic and social development in recent years. He argues compensation amounts should be raised substantially.
Does China's current compensation system accord with the national conditions? Can higher compensation solve the issue of lives being priced differently?
In my opinion, the increase of the compensation amount must match judicial and social construction. The current Chinese judicial system and social management still have many aspects that lack justice and transparency. Excessive pursuit of high compensation will derive more social and legal problems.
The first problem is that if the person forced to pay compensation is not well off himself, he may be forced to bear a lifetime of debt.
Death is tragic, but excessive pursuit of high compensation could destroy other families. If the whole society is used to demanding high compensation from every accident, it would be against humanity.
Many years ago, a road accident compensation case in Beijing stirred heated discussion: Xiao Lin, only 10 years old, was knocked down by a truck on his way home and became a vegetable. His parents finally got a final verdict from the court after 10 years of negotiations and two lawsuits against the company that owned the truck: In the end, the owner of the truck paid 2.43 million yuan as compensation.
The accident attracted attention not only because of the miserable fate of the child, but also due to the amount of damages. If such accidents happen to ordinary people, the high compensation will destroy any family.
Chinese media have reported that some couples have to divorce in order to escape high compensation. The law, which should originally keep the society stable, has become a factor that undermines social stability.
In fact, after Chen Rui died in the car accident, his parents asked for compensation of 4 million yuan. After hearing this, the court thought this amount might result in extreme difficulty for the accused and his family members. Therefore, the compensation amount was reduced to 800,000 yuan.
Second, if the perpetrators are rich or belong to the privileged class of society, they will prefer the excessive pursuit of high compensation.
In recent years, there have been many cases in Chinese society, in which high compensation is used in exchange for a reduced sentence or to buy the victims' silence.
If high compensation is paid as the sincere repentance for the sin and a true apology to the victim's family by the perpetrator, the compensation can never be too high.
After all, life is priceless. However, if there are some hidden motives, like paying off the family to avoid a prison sentence, then compensation will only perpetuate corruption.
Furthermore, if high compensation is paid from the public finance, there should be a clear explanation to taxpayers, which is unlikely under China's current system.
As a result, the pursuit of high compensation can easily lead to insurance fraud and other illegal acts instead.
In Beijing accidents that aren't fatal but cause serious injury, the perpetrator has to pay compensation until the natural death of the victim. High compensation may result in the belief that killing someone is better than injuring him/her which will lead to more serious criminal cases. Maybe bad drivers will back over their victims just to make sure.
In the US, a nation well-known for lawsuits and exaggerated damages, many victims exaggerate small injuries into serious injuries and some even deliberately injure themselves in order to receive higher compensation.
Excessively emphasizing high compensation in China will cause many new social problems and legal issues.
Therefore, the construction of China's compensation system should not only consider the economic development and income changes, but also take into account judicial justice and social fairness.
The author is a Beijing-based journalist. xiaokailin@sina.com
