Lee Kai-Fu Compares Changchun and New York Car Theft Cases

Former Google China president and influential Chinese internet personality Lee Kai-Fu posted the following on his Sina Weibo account in response to the recent Changchun car theft case where a baby in the back seat was strangled. At time of translation, his post was reshared over 100k times and had over 30k comments spanning 1500 pages…

On Sina Weibo:

@李开复 [Lee Kai-Fu]: A month ago, a pair of parents in New York went shopping, bringing along their 8-month-old daughter. The father went into a store by himself, and when he showed something from the store window trying to get the mother’s opinion, the mother got out of the car and entered the store, leaving their daughter sound asleep in the still running SUV. Here a thief stole the car and drove two miles before discovering the child in the back seat, immediately parking the car, and calling the police twice, with the infant being rescued within an hour. Police said: “The parents were basket-cases”, arranged a discussion but would not be charging the parents.

Comments on Sina Weibo:

年年ipisjohn：

What are you trying to say?

深水鱼：

Foreign thieves are all people of good character and conscience.

古继成_小米：

This is the gap/disparity [between our nations]…

时年1994：

The difference is so large.

马路天狮：

The difference is so big that even the criminals are different.

司马孔吴：

A person with God in his heart could never lay their hands on a cute little infant!

baby说好的爱我呢：

Once again smearing/making fun of our Heavenly Kingdom.

园区王亚明：

The power of religion.

清静焉知烦扰：

Naked mockery…of Chinese people…

Ernst姜伟：

Americans are still better. Even in crimes, there is a glimmer of humanity and the superiority of their system. Even though the number of dead is high with every school shooting, they’re still about to rouse admiration from even more fans in distant China.

喵呜软爪：

Darling babies, remember to not reincarnate in China in your next lives.

Meain_LAW：

So quick to find a comparison case from Imperialist America.

念念不忘201：

Uh, I think there are good people and bad people anywhere, but the difference in character then separates the bad people into bad people and evil people. Zhou X [the Changchun car thief] is the latter.

慈溪阿权：

I don’t care if this is true or not, I’m immigrating once I have the money.

o13131o：

People all the same, yet why is the difference so large?????

我是毕小薇：

The country you live in is China, a China of special characteristics under socialism.

Bballer：

A vicious slap to the the face of our great socialist with Chinese characteristics morality!

Mr北京小伙儿：

How can a religion-less, morality-less lost people be compared to others?

Merlin-Ruan：

What’s the point in comparing a light case with a serious case? Why not talk about those cases in America where the thieves rob and kill people and whatnot? When Americans commit crimes, it’s mental illness or clinical depression but when a Chinese thief strangles someone then Chinese people are deemed barbarians? Why do we insist on whitewashing America and smearing ourselves? In our country, the vast majority of thieves would also not be able to bring themselves [to kill the baby].

我是罗老三：

This thief is very professional.

Miss-yangmei：

This is the difference [between our countries]. In some countries, parents not looking after their children is illegal.

啊are：

As a public figure obscuring the facts with an untrue report, with something that even completely does not exist, what is your intent? [A few commenters believed Lee Kaifu had made this story up.]

Kylin笑：

The mother has already had a nervous breakdown and entered a mental hospital. Furthermore, their family also has an older daughter. If the father is also sent to prison, what is that child supposed to do? This family is already broken, the pain of a child’s death is already the biggest punishment and lesson for the parents. [Referring to the family involved in the Changchun car theft case.]

梦在科尔沁：

The same thing happened, yet the children’s fates were different. Do our countrymen still have any faith [beliefs, convictions, principles]? A people lacking in faith is the most dangerous of peoples!

官人慢走不送：

Human scum can be found everywhere, it has nothing to do with faith [religion, convictions, etc.].

宇宙超级无敌矩形猫：

Reading the comments, I feel a lot of our countrymen are actually very rational [referring to comments who pointed out that the comparison is unfair]. Indeed, putting this kind of example out in the middle of the storm, regardless of whether it is just to show two extremes… With this kind of thing, everyone is very heartbroken, but to continuously exaggerate and exaggerate, as if the characters of Chinese people have become zero [nothing] when in fact these are just two individual cases that happen to be extremes placed together. I pray for the little baby.

手机用户3191674640：

Every country has good and bad people, one cannot use one single thing to completely dismiss one’s own country.

夏宁梓然：

… You know fully well that a lot of netizens read your weibo, why make this kind of comparison at this moment? According to these comparisons, everyone might as well emigrate! Stop it. Savage murderous people can be found everywhere. If we want a moderate society, we need even more moderate leaders and public opinions to guide us. Li Kaifu, you should use your leadership strength to call and appeal for improvements to laws! And not making comparisons between two criminals. Comparing two individual cases does not convey the overall issue!

白痴呆呆熊：

Look at the Two Meetings these days, simply a joke. A bunch of government bigwigs saying they represent the ordinary common people’s interest yet stand there making such bullshit proposals. How many years has education reform been raised? What progress has been made?

摄魂怪才：

You posting this microblog post is nothing but ridiculing our countrymen. The innate characters of the criminals involved in these two seemingly similar incidents are different and thus they are not comparable. What is your true intention here? You know it yourself.

巴马爸：

Doing everything you can to demonize Chinese people, but before you demonize Chinese people, first make it clear that you are not surnamed Li/Lee and that you are a purebred American.

-Timomo：

The disparity between Chinese and foreigners.

nungesser66：

How come we don’t see you writing about the dark side of America? Is constantly flattering America profitable?

丫儿GDP：

Okay, the difference caused such a big tragedy. This is the fault of the parents, the fault of society, the fault of the government.

-向谈-：

America’s thieves are all models of morality in Liar Lee’s eyes, so what I don’t get is, what is Liar Lee still doing in China?

Nicole16789：

America’s largest social problem is gun businesses buying Congress using the excuse that the people have the right to own guns to protect themselves, thus giving mentally deficient/unstable people the opportunity to commit crimes. So what is China’s biggest social problem? ……Morality ……Integrity.