Son of general gets one-year confinement for assault
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Xinhua, September 16, 2011
Beijing police on Thursday put the son of a Chinese Army general and respected tenor in detention for one year, after the 15-year-old's violent acts last week stirred up public outrage.
General Li Shuangjiang's son, whose full name was not revealed due to his young age, was found to have physically assaulted a couple and damaged their car in a dispute near a Beijing residential area last Tuesday night, police said. Li's son admitted what he had done during police interrogation.
Police said Li had been sent to a government correctional facility for a one-year confinement. Su Nan, Li's accomplice who was an adult, would be arrested, police added.
The violence has kicked up fresh public disdain for China's "fuerdai," or "rich second generation." Li's son and Su drove a customized BMW and an Audi on the night of the attack and allegedly warned a crowd of onlookers not to report what they had seen to police.
General Li, a 72-year-old man who built his reputation in past decades by singing popular patriotic songs, was criticized by netizens for failing to raise his son properly.
"A 15-year-old can drive a car without a license and display outright arrogance in public just because his father is Li Shuangjiang?" a netizen using the screenname "tiangang" wrote on his blog.
Internet users also rewrote the lyrics of "Red Star Guides Me To Fight," a revolutionary song that made Li famous in the 1970s, mocking the arrogance of Li's son.
China's remarkable economic success over the past three decades has spawned a number of rich and powerful businessmen, officials and celebrities. The children of these wealthy families are known as China's "rich second generation," a title which earned them notoriety and scorn.
News stories in which the children of China's rich and powerful openly flout the law have whipped up public debate over the country's yawning wealth gap.
Last year, a drunk 23-year-old hit-and-run driver gained nationwide notoriety by reportedly shouting "sue me if you dare, my father is Li Gang." The Li Gang in question is a district police chief in central China's Hebei Province.
His song Li Qiming was subsequently sentenced to six years in prison for the accident, which left one woman dead and another injured.
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