Foreign or Chinese, price of life is equal
- Source: Global Times
- [04:30 February 25 2010]
- Comments
By Wu Meng
If life has a price tag, apparently the life of a foreigner is worth more than a local Chinese person's. A lawsuit involving a late Singaporean-Chinese man and a driver in Hunan Province has stirred up legal debate.
On March 9, 2009, a Singaporean man named Chen Rui traveling in Hengdong county, Hunan Province, lost his life in a car accident on a foggy day. The driver who failed to slow down in the misty weather and struck Chen's car, was the subject of a lawsuit a month later by Chen's parents. They sought 4 million yuan ($585,883) in compensation.
A judge ruled the defendant had to pay Chen's parents 799,855 yuan ($117,155). Not satisfied with the outcome, Chen's parents commissioned a lawyer for a new trial.
According to the current Chinese legal code, the law of the place where a crime is committed shall apply in compensation claims. By local law, the compensation to Chen's parents should be 20 years' worth of disposable income, which has been the standard compensation in deaths caused by car accidents.
Do different lives have different values? Is a Singaporean-Chinese's life worth more than a local farmer's?
Ironically, if we go back 63 years, a very similar scene occurred in the Communist Party-controlled Yantai, Shandong Province in 1947. A man named Yang Lukui, who was a rickshaw puller living in the small city, was hit by a Jeep driven by an official working for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) who was an American citizen.
After hitting Yang, the car not only didn't stop, but also drove on until people on the street rushed out and stopped it. Eventually, the UNRRA paid a total of $3,400 to the family.
At that time, the legal system was still very immature, so international standards were used. It showed people's respect for the law and life, even in a place where there were not yet set standards.
It was the first legal case of the CPC government involving foreign nationals. The ruling followed the principle of "life has the same value."
The times have changed and of course we cannot compare then to now in terms of compensation. Admittedly, Chen's parents were justi-fied in saying they devoted everything they had to bringing their son up. Being a Chinese-Singaporean who took Singaporean nationality after a few years of study there, his income would probably be higher than a lot of Chinese people.
But when it comes to life and its value, the standard should be the same for everybody. If the life of a citizen of a developed country is worth more money than that of a person in a developing country, where is the dignity and respect for life itself?
Fundamentally, a life is a life.
