A Reminder To Register Your Motorcycle And Don’t Run Into Anyone

Motorcycle accident in Beijing

A foreigner who knocked down a woman with his motorcycle in Beijing on December 2 — he’s pictured above being grabbed by the victim — apparently was working “without a permit” in Beijing and has been deported. Talk about escalating fast. Also, he had been driving the motorcycle without a license, so he was fined 5,000 yuan. Oh, and his father was deported as well for working without a permit. What did either of them actually do?

If you know, feel free to drop us a note. In the meantime, Shanghai Daily with this report:

The December 2 accident hit the headlines because it was thought the woman, surnamed Li, had thrown herself in front of the motorcycle to extort compensation. However, police later said the expat had knocked Li down, caused her injuries, and had shouted at her in Chinese and English.

The photographer later apologized for misleading captions that suggested extortion was at play.

The father, whose name was also not disclosed, will be put under administrative detention for 14 days and fined 10,000 yuan.

He will also be deported after serving his term and their employer will be fined 20,000 yuan, police said.

That’s a lot of collateral damage. The rider reportedly is British and has lived in Beijing six years, which is a long time to still be treated by police like a fresh-off-the-boat laowai.

Police asked the pair to settle the matter privately and the expat gave her 1,800 yuan, she told The Beijing News. The money was used for medical bills, including ambulance fees and medicine, Li said.

Take this as a cautionary tale, expats: register your motorcycles! And take care not to run into anyone.

Also, something something about visa restrictions, “crackdowns” on foreigners, etc.

Motorcycle expat to be deported, along with his father (Shanghai Daily, h/t Alicia)

    15 Responses to “A Reminder To Register Your Motorcycle And Don’t Run Into Anyone”

    1. Matt Schrader

      Before I say anything else: yes, there is selective, racist enforcement at play here on the part of the authorities. And yes, the behavior of the woman he knocked down was horrible. And yes, this guy’s getting his world turned upside down because of a massively disproportionate response to a minor traffic dispute that went viral. And yes, it probably wouldn’t have gone viral without a big push from latent racism fed by historical grievances that many people here (aforementioned authorities included) seem much happier to nurse than to let heal. And yes, all this has been reported through the lens of a media environment whose reliability is questionable at best.

      But, the guy was driving without a license, and appears to have been working without the proper visa. He ran a red light and crashed into a pedestrian that was crossing with the light, in a pedestrian crossing. Then he stood in public and cursed her in some really vile language, with the cellphone cameras rolling. Is it really possible to suggest that he didn’t “do” anything? Acknowledging that the British guy was also in the wrong doesn’t diminish any of the other completely messed up aspects of the case that are in no way his fault.

      Reply
      • Skepticist

        Really? Initial media attention focused on the behavior of the Chinese women that, to me at least, exaggerates the extent of her injuries. The settlement with the guy for 1800 rmb was made before the media storm, so no influence there. And now his dad getting deported, well, he must have popped up, perhaps when coming to collect his son at the police station, and also got checked as a matter of routine? Whatever the case, the dude was foudn to be working here without proper papers, for the second time (that’s in the shanghai daily article). Nothing wrong with fining him for that. I dont see the racism here dude

        Reply
          • Skepticist

            He got deported because he overstayed his legal welcome. Period. Perhaps they only found out because they were paying extra attention, but even that isn’t sure. There’s every reason to scrutinize police behavior in China, but in this case, there really isn’t that much can be said in the guys defence.

            Reply
            • Chinese Netizen

              Word.
              And Lao Wais should not become localized in mentality as well when they ride their f-ing little scooters around the streets like little Hell driven A holes. Seen too many of those.

    2. stevelaudig

      I have been unable to identify anything this guy did that was intelligent. It’s called ‘felony stupid’. He caught a break actually in his victims. Suppose it had been a granny and she was dead from the impact…… Foreigners are here on sufferance and to view it any other way is to set yourself up for problems.

      Reply
    3. Gargh

      I think a big lesson here is: don’t copy the people you see every day and shout and swear in Chinese. Yes, everybody seems to do it, but in most people’s eyes it’s a sign of having no class (or face, more accurately). Keep it low-key even when someone’s being as incredibly annoying as this woman appears to be. That should probably go double if you’re in China on the wrong visa.

      Also, goddammit China needs decent healthcare provision. Looks to me like she’s just grasping for money, but there’s a chance she was legitimately concerned about being hurt- and in either case having medical costs covered would probably avoid squatting-on-bike-and-shouting incidents.

      Reply
    4. Jive madra

      “suppose it was a granny”… and what if that granny was holding a baby… and was pregnant with twins, AND THOSE KIDS CHINESE WITH BLONDE HAIR… and they were going to grow up to cure HIV and… and smog. Yep.

      Reply
    5. halifax

      Really simple stuff here.
      If you are working illegally, maybe, just maybe you should either rectify that situation, get out, or fly under the radar.

      No license
      No registration
      Overstayed visa
      Working illegally
      Runs red light
      Crashes into an older woman
      Shouts obscenities at said woman as if she did something wrong

      Yep, that’s textbook idiocy right there.
      If you hit someone and they claim injuries which you suspect are basically made up. Offer to take them to the best hospital you can think of with the condition being that if there are no injuries as they claim, they pay the bill. If there ARE injuries, you get the credit for going above and beyond what most would consider doing.

      Or, you know, you could simply NOT work illegally, NOT overstay your visa, NOT break traffic laws, NOT drive illegally, and NOT get into fights if you get into an accident. Really really really simple shit here.

      Reply
      • jixiang

        It doesn’t say anywhere that the guy overstayed his visa. He was working on the wrong visa, but who doesn’t do that here? Who on earth really registers their motorbike? And really, who doesn’t break the traffic laws sometimes in China? You can hardly get around without doing so.

        The point is more that he really did crash into the lady, and so at that point he should have had a different attitude. If she had been trying to cheat him, then I would sympathize with him completely.

        Reply
    6. Madiba

      In the video, it clearly shows him making an very illegal right turn from the left turn lane and runs right into the women crossing the street because he expected the women to stop and let him cross first, even though she had the right of way.

      This guy was a p.o.s douchebag. REGARDLESS OF RACE OR CITIZENSHIP, what kind of low class self righteous p.o.s yells at someone after running into them.

      If he had any sort of class or respect, he would of simply apologized to the lady and offered to take care of her for RUNNING INTO HER WITH HIS CRAPPY MOTORBIKE.

      He literally sat there and called her ” LAO B and SHA B” which means OLD PUSSY AND STUPID PUSSY… who does that? I mean, what kind of low life piece of crap does that to someone they just hit with their motorbike.

      Had that lady been your mother, aunt, sister, friend or whatever besides a random chink, you would ALLLLLL be raging pissed and less racist about it…. or even worse, if the driver was Chinese and he hit a middle aged white women, all you fags and hypocrites would be screaming how f’d up the chinks are and they should all rot and die.

      Had he done the same in the UK, he would NOT HAVE THE BALLS to say anything like that, and if he did, the crowd would of gave him a swift kicking to the ass, what a knob. This type of behavior obviously stems from his holier than thou superiority complex… simply because he’s white. He’s probably all choked because he’s been living here for 6 years and is still broke and riding a crappy 2 dollar motorbike.

      China is full of hipster closet racist foreigners, mostly broke and bitchy, complaining about first world problems and 3rd world injustices while doing nothing to better the cause except bitch about it on the internet.

      Reply
      • jixiang

        You are just as prejudiced as anyone. The fact is that there are a lot of people in China who will try to ring as much money as possible out of someone who runs them over, instead of just being reasonable about it. If it’s a foreigner, a certain racist reflex may also set in. That’s why foreigners who have lived in China for a while tend to be skeptical about such incidents. Although the woman was knocked over, her behaviour was probably atrocious from the start, screaming and refusing to be reasonable, even though she clearly wasn’t really hurt.

        Reply

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