A thief, me, and the PSB (Public Security Bureau)

“Thank you for your assistance, gentlemen, My wounds need attending to, we are leaving.”

And as we departed, the insights gained from this unlikely spiritual experience were reinforced by the officer-in-charge when she collared my wife in the courtyard outside and once again asked her for personal information about her relationship with me. When my wife asked why was this information needed, the response was, “so that if we find the criminal we can contact you with this information”.

More lies. Anyway, how can you find a criminal you are not searching for?

What will happen now?

Causing loss of “face” to these officers will bring its own reaction. China has no cultural or spiritual tradition of forgiving and forgetting, so unfortunately for us, we can expect some kind of negative consequence.

Most likely we will be monitored for a while: technically (via email, telephone, etc) or perhaps physically (by undercover police) for any evidence that might support a self-serving, face-saving false report on this incident.

This is the way it works: implicate your victim first; find or manufacture enough circumstantial evidence to justify your implication; and in the process, advance your career. Standard procedure for police states everywhere.

What can I do about it?

Not much. All I can do is despise the dishonesty that pervades this regime from top to bottom, and pity those workers whose lives are trapped forever in subtle bondage to a sick system. Feudalism dies hard. Strong words, but that is how it has always been. Emperor or president, it has never been any different. This system has remained basically unchanged for 5,000 years.

In fact, Chairman Mao himself tried to get rid of it and failed. And as we know, his methods were brutal.

I give this regime two more generations. No more. Check what Marx himself had to say about unrestrained capitalism and undemocratic leadership.

From Brian in China (at the government's pleasure).