Seventeen-year-old Li Guanfeng — alternately called Li Tianyi, problem child, brat, and rapist — was found guilty of gang rape by Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing earlier this morning. His high-level connections — his father is renowned PLA singer Li Shuangjiang, and his mother is singer Meng Ge — apparently weren’t enough to get him off the hook for allegedly sexually assaulting a young woman with four of his friends in a Beijing hotel on February 17.

SCMP has this report:

“In the course of committing the crime they have performed obscene acts to the victim, which should be seen as part of the criminal act of gang rape and have been put into consideration when determining the level of punishment,” according to verdict shared on the microblog of the Beijing judiciary.

Li’s sentence is harsher than all except one of his co-defendants, because he chose not to plead guilty. Another defendant surnamed Wang, the only one of them who was an adult when the crime was committed, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The other three received jail sentences of between three and four years.

And like so, the saga nears its conclusion (an appeal is forthcoming, and there’s the matter of where Li will serve out his term). The story first broke in February, and has been allowed — almost surprisingly, considering the players involved — to remain in the limelight almost every step of the way. In July, when a court momentarily rendered Li’s alleged crime as “taking turns having sex,” we wondered aloud whether authorities were serious about prosecuting this young man with a history of misbehavior. “The public will never trust Chinese justice until an example is made of someone,” I wrote, referring specifically to the country’s second-generation rich who seem to find increasingly creative ways of ducking discipline and receding from the glare of public censure. But that question appears to have been answered.

Perhaps part of what went wrong is the Li family chose to let this drama play out in public, maybe under the mistaken notion that their son was a sympathetic figure. Li’s defense team — almost led by the mother, Meng Ge — had been leaking information about the victim and the bar where she met Li Guanfeng for the past month. Notable figures such as Tsinghua professor Yi Yanyou were also enlisted (directly or not) to help the cause. Meng even asked the trial to be public — when that request was denied, it should’ve been a clear sign that the defense was doomed. In the end, the court appeared to scoff at Li’s defense, ruling that the victim’s profession “had no direct relationship” to the charges.

Are we heartened? Or have we just learned that the best, only way to wiggle out of charges, if you have the means and ability, is to shutter yourself from the public eye and negotiate in backrooms?

The following one-minute video on Youku, a straightforward news report on the verdict, has been watched 778,000 times in the hour since it was posted. Li Guanfeng may have never had a chance.

A young woman got into a fight with subway security last Friday at Beijing Subway’s Changping Line. According to the video description, the scuffle began when she refused to put her bag through the X-ray machine, reportedly saying, “My bag costs twenty-fucking-thousand bucks, can you afford to touch it?” She then began cursing the poor security guards, with her male companion joining in.

Okay, context time: security check at Beijing subway is unnecessary, and as we’ve seen before, easily bypassed. But for crying out loud, it takes, what, 30 seconds to go through it, max? Throwing your bag into the scanner adds, on average, like five seconds to your travel time. Also, the people who work next to these machines usually are wide-eyed trainees who hate their jobs more than you hate yours, so why give them any grief? Does it really make you feel better about yourself? How shitty must your life be, and how low your self-esteem? Put your bag through the damn scanner like everyone else.

Later, the woman reportedly yelled, “I’ll fucking call my daddy to kill you.” When more security guards (chengguan?) came, a fight began, during which a cop’s arm was bitten. (All of this is still according to the video description, so take it with a grain of salt.)

We’re not sure whether the bag-carrying woman is a fu’erdai — a second-generation rich — but let’s see… rich accessory? Check. Brattiness and flaunting? Check. A threat to call on a parent to do her dirty work? Check. We’re gonna go ahead and tag this one fu’erdai.

Original Youku video here.

Vid in high-def:

Li Tianyi, sometimes known as Li Guanfeng, is the 17-year-old son of well-known People’s Liberation Army singer Li Shuangjiang, which was why it was so shocking, in February, when he was accused of participating in a gang rape. The public quickly judged him guilty, and predictably renewed curses of the country’s privileged youth while anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop, the Chinese justice system to fail.

A funny thing, though: more than four months later, things continue to look grim for Li, despite his father being the aforementioned famous Li Shuangjiang. His lawyer quit last week, according to China Daily, and Li will continue to be tried for “gang rape,” likely as an adult.

Of course, people are still waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Chinese media is squarely to blame. Reports SCMP:

From “alleged gang rape” to “taking turns having sex” – the changing phrases in Chinese official media reports on a criminal case involving the teenage son of a famous PLA general are angering many internet users.

Indeed, “taking turns having sex” was such a popular topic that it is now un-searchable on Sina Weibo:

What was Chinese media thinking? How is “taking turns having sex” possibly a crime? Did no editor think to ask? (Swinger parties are technically illegal here, but the phrase is still ridiculous.)

Or did an official, uncomfortable with how swiftly Li was convicted in the court of public opinion, decide to retake the narrative?

Beijing News clarified that Li is indeed still being charged with rape, but as SCMP notes, “despite authority’s clarification, ‘taking turns to have sex’ has become the most frequently mentioned phrase on China’s biggest microblog Sina Weibo. It has been discussed over 240,000 times as of Friday afternoon. This shows how strongly public feels about bad behaviour by children from privileged backgrounds.”

Fair or not, the second-generation rich here will never get the benefit of the doubt. There’s a reason for that: they drive through walls, run over people, stab women, and never face a degree of punishment commensurate with their crime. The public will never trust Chinese justice until an example is made of someone. Maybe Li Tianyi.

UPDATE, 7/9, 7:47 pm: On July 8, he was officially charged with rape.

Yu Anze, an 18-year-old Chinese student at UC-Davis, slammed his SUV into the side of a house in Woodland, California on June 19, according to KCRA.com. The only question: could he have done it on purpose?

One person thinks so.

The homeowners didn’t want to go on camera with KCRA 3, but their son provided his side of the story.

He said Yu — an international student from China, now at UC Davis — was a friend who happened to have very wealthy parents. Yu feels like he can do whatever he wants, the son told KCRA 3.

Feels like he can do whatever he wants. The next time tragedy befalls a Chinese student abroad, a segment of people on Chinese social media will say he/she deserved it because his/her parents are wealthy and these fu’erdai can do whatever they want without fear of repercussion. What they will really be thinking of is assholes like Yu Anze, who drive cars through walls.

Although this homeowner’s son might not be 100 percent reliable as a source, this is the picture he paints of Yu:

He said Yu also tortures cats, and the suspect’s girlfriend has tried to stop the alleged animal abuse. Yu threatened her with physical violence, so the son offered to take the girl in for her safety, he said.

The Chinese student got angry, thought his girlfriend was at the home, and crashed his SUV, according to the son.

Kids these days.

Cops: Teen rams BMW SUV through garage, into Woodland home (KCRA, h/t Casey Smith)

Pictured above is Yang Li (Li is apparently his surname; he appears to have a LinkedIn account under the name Jiao Yang Li). We don’t know much about him, but he made the news recently after allegedly trying to bribe a University of Bath professor — and carrying an “imitation firearm” into the meeting.

A court heard that Li, 26, was studying a masters degree in innovation and technology management and feared failure.

He was dismayed to learn he had been given just 37 per cent for his dissertation which was a fail – and would have meant him spending an extra year at the university.

That would have affected Li’s visa which he was hoping to upgrade from a student visa to a tier 1 visa.

Li, who was born and educated in China, asked to meet Professor Andrew Graves and Dr Stephen Shepherd to discuss his options.

Bristol Crown Court heard he told the pair ‘I am a businessman’ before placing £5,000 in cash on the table.

He then said: ‘There is a fourth option, you can keep the money if you give me a pass mark and I won’t bother you again.’

When that failed and he was asked to leave he picked up his coat and a 0.177 air pistol fell from the pocket.

The 26-year-old has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for bribery and six months for carrying a firearm, despite retaining excellent counsel, who said things such as:

Mr Li is someone who is used to carrying large amounts of cash with him…. He was not thinking straight, he made an impulsive decision to use the money he had on him, which was a ridiculous gesture and ill-thought through…. One of Mr Li’s pleasures is shooting in the garden of his house, and he intended to return to it after the meeting…. He had the gun in the pocket of his coat as he didn’t want to leave it in the car, he felt it was safer with him…. It was in no way connected to his meeting…. In his haste to leave the meeting, he picked up his coat and the gun fell to the floor.

Blake James, esq., also mentioned Li’s father is a “respected government official and businessman,” who we imagine is proud of his son. When Li eventually makes his way back to China, he’s going to find life so much easier. For now, though, a sobering reminder that he does not run the world, and money can’t buy him out of all his troubles.

Son of Chinese government official tried to bribe his Bath University professor with £5,000 (Daily Mail, h/t Nick Papa)

Yichun Xu, 19, was charged with vehicular homicide in Des Moines, Iowa Washington on November 10 for speeding through a stop sign and crashing into a car full of people, one of whom later died from her injuries. Xu was driving four female passengers and reportedly going up to 70 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood. As reported, Xu was visiting the US for eight weeks to attend Puget Sound Community College. He drove a 2008 Mercedes C300 he had purchased four days earlier despite not having a valid driver’s license or prior driving experience in the US (as he told police). Investigators also found empty beer bottles in his car from a party he and his friends attended the night before.

Xu pleaded not guilty on December 6 and was ordered to be held at King County jail on a $2 million bail. “The bail was set at a high amount due to fears that Xu would flee to China if released,” reports Sina.

On Friday, Xu’s mother wrote a cashier’s check.

Ian Goodhew of the King County Prosecuting Office Attorney’s Office said it was rare for that much money to be posted.

Via SCMP, netizens who heard this news were outraged. “Many were concerned that the court might not get Xu Yichun back to the US if he returns to China. There is no extradition treaty between the US and China.” It’s unclear whether they feel a little better knowing the court confiscated Xu’s passport.

A microblogger, called “Pretending in New York” and describing himself as living in the US, shared a report by www.kirotv.com on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-style site, on Tuesday morning. The report revealed more details about Xu Yichun’s background from the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily.

The report by a Sing Tao Daily reporter in San Francisco said Xu Yichun was from a rich family. His father, Xu Zhaohong, was the chief executive of taxchina.com, a prominent mainland tax and accounting firm.

“[Some of] the second generation of China’s rich families are trouble makers in other countries,”  said “Pretending in New York” – which attracted a lot of praise from Chinese netizens.

This post and many related ones were deleted. (Perhaps because Sina fears they are simply rumors? more likely, because they don’t need netizens getting angry during the Two Sessions.)

The victim in that crash was 25-year-old Brenda Gomez, pictured above, whose family is represented by David Nold. According to the above-linked Kiro TV story:

“His attorneys tell me, and I take them at their word, that he wants to stay and face these charges and do the right thing. I’ve never met the parents, so I can’t speak as to their motives, or what they’re going to do next,” said Nold.

Nold said it’s frustrating to Gomez’s family not knowing Xu’s intentions or what it would do to his family to lose $2 million in bail money if he fled.

“It’s unfathomable to them how someone could walk into jail and pay $2 million, a sum of money that is quantifiable (but) a lot, and then perhaps be gone,” Nold said.

It would take some serious maneuvering for Xu to flee the country — even though, as it’s been shown time and again, money can buy a lot.

(H/T Alicia) Ed’s note, 2:12 pm: We’ve changed the headline so there’s no confusion about which Des Moines this happened in (Washington, not Iowa).

In Chengdu recently, a speeding sedan driven by a drunk 19-year-old without a driver’s license plowed into three roadside construction workers, killing one and injuring the others. After police and a news team arrived on the scene, cameras caught an astonishing sight: what appeared to be the driver and a young woman in a red dress being tender with one another. The journalist on scene reports that the man’s demeanor immediately changed when he realized he was being filmed.

It’s here that we’ll point out that he wore a shirt with “Sexy” on it and had a male companion who angrily told off the camera. That should be enough to incite ire from every viewer, especially those who have been quick to curse these youngsters as fu’erdai, second-generation rich. But then, something truly incredible happens. The girlfriend, while walking away, suddenly whirls around and croaks at the camera, “Film me, ya ya ya ya ya!” Idiot, here’s your rope. After being led away — dragged, we imagine — she waves at the news team, the side-slit in her dress revealing her thin legs and platform shoes. “Film me!” she caws.

Would it be impolite for me to tell her to beware what she wishes for?

Netizen comments have been, to put it mildly, unkind:

@YYJ白酒一两: What a rotten woman, no taste in clothes, also ugly, I’d find her cumbersome if she were given to me for free.

@絡莯蘩錵: His father must be Li Gang.

@牛人刘凤江: These beasts aren’t severely punished, heaven tolerate, that girl is not only shameless, but also is a wolf-hearted, dog-lunged [idiom: cruel and unscrupulous], cold slut.

@波板糖微博: This type deserves a prison sentence, that woman is disgusting.

@aibama88: Beasts plus perversion.

If indeed these lads and that misfortunate lass — who you can rest assured in knowing will get everything that’s coming to her — are indeed fu’erdai, their families will hook them up with a lawyer and this incident will be but a speed bump in their wonderful, blessed lives.

There is, however, no amount of money that can buy public perception, or wipe this video off the Internet. The human flesh engine will mete out punishment by publicizing their names, and soon after we just might have another Chinese Internet meme. “Ya ya ya ya ya” will not be forgotten anytime soon. Let that be the rallying cry for airheads and dimwits everywhere.

(H/T Alicia)

This is an update to our 2 am post about Lu Jianbo, the civil servant in Jiangsu province who attacked a woman with a knife on Friday night while reportedly shouting, “My family runs the public security bureau! Killing people is not a problem!” (“公安局是我家开的, 杀死人没问题!”)

The raw footage of the incident remains cleansed from Youku, where it first appeared, which is weird because news about the attack can be found in several other places. (Click here to see the original clip on Daily Motion — I was afraid to upload it to YouTube, whose moderators are vestal ninnies who haphazardly hand out “community warnings” for videos that are too “shocking”).

We’ve since learned that the woman attacked is Zang Hongmei, and that Lu Jianbo was so incensed because Zang’s mother allegedly hit Lu’s mother in the head with a brick. All this from Global Times, which has more details:

According to an initial investigation, Lu’s mother, surnamed Miao, became involved in an altercation with her neighbor, Zang, following a quarrel between the two around 7:30 pm inside the grounds of their apartment compound.

During the scuffle, Miao was allegedly hit on the head by a brick thrown by Zang. When Lu arrived home and saw his mother’s injuries, he grabbed a knife and attacked Zang, said police.

Zang suffered tendon and nerve damage in her left thumb during the attack and was taken to a nearby hospital for surgery.

Lu repeatedly shouted, “My family runs the public security bureau” during the attack, several eyewitnesses to the attack told the Beijing News.

Zang’s husband explained to local media that the neighbors Miao and Zang have had a long-standing dispute. “Lu’s family has taken over public green space and has been erecting illegal structures for a long time and many residents have called the mayor’s hotline to complain.”

People have latched on to the phrase “My family runs the Public Security Bureau.” Isolated from the context of an angry young man fighting for the honor of his mother, the words serve as a blunt reminder of the perceived arrogance of this country’s children of privilege. (Lu Jianbo’s father is Lu Shengmin, who Global Times says “is in charge of office management, finance and infrastructure work at the local public security bureau,” i.e. the deputy political commissar of the Jingjiang Public Security Bureau.) if Jianbo isn’t exactly a fu’erdai — second-generation rich — he’s the next best/worst thing: second-generation powerful. In other words, he will never win a public relations battle.

The comparisons to Li Gang were inevitable: you’ll remember “My dad is Li Gang” were the infamous words uttered by an intoxicated Li Qiming to security guards after he killed a Hebei University student with his car. The incident turned into a full-blown meme after censors failed to control the message, and the lesson was clear: there’s a lot of public discontent in China — with the rich, the powerful, the justice system, and, by extension, the government.

Which makes these type of stories so potentially volatile. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here, if anywhere. (“According to China’s Criminal Law, Lu could face intentional injury charges and a potential sentence ranging from six months to 10 years, Gao [Ming, a lawyer from the Shanghai Wanfang Law Firm, told the Global Times].”)

Will Lu’s mother, who has been illegally taking over public green space, be punished? Could she possibly, considering who her husband is? Of course, the family will spin the narrative so that she’s a victim in all this, the bullied old woman. Maybe it would have worked — that is, before the son went ahead and threw away his family’s only chance for garnering public sympathy. All it took were seven words.

The man seen with the knife is apparently Lu Jianbo, son of the deputy political commissar of the Jiangsu Province Public Security Bureau. The PSB’s Weibo has confirmed that Lu is under “investigation,” which should be aided by the video above, taken Friday night, in which Lu wields a knife at a woman on the ground, cutting her a reported 34 times (images after the jump).

The victim somehow manages to get on her feet and retreat behind a door, at which point an obviously incensed Lu tries to kick down the barrier, gesticulating wildly, and, according to Weibo, shouting, “My family started the Public Security Bureau! Killing people is not a problem!” UPDATE, 3:21 pm: “My family runs the Public Security Bureau” is probably a better translation for “公安局是我家开的.”

The victim suffered tendon and nerve damage on the hand, and was cut pretty badly on the legs. She said the dispute was over an illegally built house (or extension of one). No idea how it escalated to the point it did. Youku video for those in China after the jump. UPDATE, 10:42 am: They’ve scrubbed all videos of “Lu Jianbo” from Youku. You’ll get a news story via Tudou instead.

UPDATE: Follow-up post here.