Of Elements & Embassies: Is It Safe to Go Out?

mjtaylor wrote:

Official? No. Employee? Most definitely. Most people at the embassy are absolute scum.

Yeah, yeah... can't wait to hear what you've got to say about the TSA the next time you go home...now that you've very obviously got your butt flagged Michael!

Coming from the guy who spends his days trolling, publically, other people's threads on this very website.
I had to delete this guy's post and block him when he responded to a serious skin condition inquiry I made by saying I have aids; out of line, uncalled for, and certainly not funny. People like you should be blocked from this site.

Could look at this as a problem between foreign men and Chinese men having no common ground or connections. Most foreign men here have Chinese female friends rather than male friends. How many foreign men could honestly claim to have Chinese male 'mates'? (putting aside colleagues or friends of Chinese girlfriends, etc).

This probably contributes to the ever widening gulf of understanding between both sets, as well as increasing rivaly / competition etc, which naturally boils over in a nightclub-like environment.

Well, here is one story that happened to me:

I lived in the Times apartment complex near east 4th ring road, managed by Cosco real estate. The security guards there were running a scam where at night they would say your car was illegally parked inside the lot, then tow your car 50 yards to the outside of the gate. Once it was outside the complexes gate, people would steal spare tires from SUV's and things like this (five feet from the security stand), and the security would say, well, it wasn't on our property, so its not our fault.

It happened to my car, and when I complained nothing was done. So I put a sign on my car warning others about this. The next day my car was vandalized by the security guards right in front of my apartment. It was scratched, tires deflated, and written on (inside the complex).

Later that same evening, one of the security guards started arguing with me, telling me I had no rights there. I never touched anyone, but eventually 5 security guards came over and all started beating on me. But worst of all, there was a local Chinese businessman who lived in the complex. He heard an argument with the security, just assumed because I was a laowai, I was at fault, and he assisted them, telling me this was China, and I had no right to complain, and also trying to punch me, meanwhile I had done nothing, other than try to park my car.

In the end Cosco had to pay for the damage to my car, but none of the security was reprimanded in any way, and the police wanted nothing to do with it.

If someone wants to say it was just normal disagreements, or that I deserved it, I think that is incorrect. I have been in China many many years, and this is just one story of many I have had personal involvement in. And I don't see it getting better anytime soon.

Then why did you just call the US governments fight against illegal aliens a witchhunt? Why didn't you say that the US is calling it citizens to be helpful enforcers of policy? Because that is not what happens is it?

I don't condone all of Americas policies at all, but I don't know of the government encouraging people to look for illegal aliens.

But even more importantly, the US government does allow people of all nationalities to live there as citizens just like any native born American. Does that happen in China?

Furthermore, do you think that people are attacked by groups and beaten because they are not American? And if it happens do the police ignore it? It happens in China, and is increasing. If you are not aware of this, your experience is limited.

Element made a statement that they simply tried to remove a guy who was in their words harrassing girls. Then what did he get hit over the head with? The word is that he was beaten while he was laying on the ground. Do you think the employee of the embassy made this up? Because I have seen similar things before-with zero reprecussions for those who did these kinds of things.

If you don't believe the air is becoming more and more volatile for all foreigners, I suggest you aren't paying enough attention. Eventually a businessman is going to get seriously hurt or killed, simply for being a foreigner here.

Squid,

While not condoing any violence whatsoever, I don't see how the Chinese govt on the lookout for illegal aliens is any different than the US on their witch hunt for Mexican illegals. In its purest form, neither policy is directed at any racial group. What happens is in the US, legal Hispanic-Americans get racially profiled on account of actual illegals and in China, Westerners feel unjustly targeted on account of all the tourists overstaying their visas to teach English.

"It's even more odd that I never get ANYTHING from the embassy about anything else aside from Gongti club beatings -- nothing about food scares, pollution issues, traffic rerstrictions, 100-day crackdowns on foreigners, SARS/Bird Flu virus outbreaks, rumored coups, earthquake/severe weather warnings, diplomatic visits from important US figures, US holiday announcements, US tax law changes, reminders to vote ... nothing.
Except of course regular warnings about avoiding gongti nightclubs."

That only shows that the embassy staff sucks. Just like this is the case with many other embassies here in BJ.
And about the violence: with no real media and the way things are dealt with in this country, it is difficult to find out what really happened in most of the cases. Or who is to blame. In general I notice that aggression has been rising in BJ over the last years, this is especially the case when in traffic. Last week on my way to to work I witnessed several fights and heavy arguments between Chinese because of obviously simple things: who has to give way or drives first. This happens anywhere in the world, but usually people don`t start a fistfight because of that. So it looks as if a few people here have some anger managment problem. Or no manners. At least that`s the way it looks. The question is: does this make going out safer? Ah, see...

Jonathon,

Fair enough, your story is meant to serve as a general reminder about safety in any city. In that regard, you could say the same thing about Tokyo Japan. But in Tokyo people don't go around beating up others just because they are laowei. They do in Beijing, and it is increasing, and to be frank, thebeijingers allowing their site sites forum to be used as a China bashing venue without moderation deserves a little bit of the blame.

Secondly, I think you went a little easy on Element. THEY say their security isn't trained to hit people with bottles, so they figure it wasn't theirs? Where in your story do you mention what steps Element has made to make sure people are safe in the future? where in your story do you discuss who was arrested for this beating, and what the results were?

The story comes off more as a reminder to drunks to watch your back-and much less of a reminder of how things have changed a lot here recently, because of these campaigns, and a continued refusal to allow foreigners to assimilate into the society in the same way as locals.

That is the real story in my opinion, and too little is being written about this.

Squid,
You raise some valid points but it’s not for us to say whether these are random acts or not, or if xenophobia is the root cause. The cause of violence is manifold and we expect these recent cases are no different.

Rather than get into that minefield, we thought it would be a public service to highlight the problem as we have been informed of it and to offer the best solution to our readers that we can.

Take Sanlitun Houjie as an example. Businessowners and regulars there have told us that the violent confrontations range from Chinese on Chinese, foreigner on foreigner, foreigner on Chinese, Chinese on foreigner – all of which could involve groups or individuals.

What we hope is that none of our readers are unfortunate enough to be caught up in such an incident.

Also, we did not suggest that the victim in this case was drunk or had even been drinking. Everyone should be keeping their wits about them in any case. All we tried to offer was a reminder that whatever may be driving this apparent recent increase in violence, it would serve us all best to do our best to avoid it.