Son of singer's gang rape arrest sparks debate on children of the privileged

Many families have their black sheep but few have triggered so much public anger and hostility as the 17-year-old son of celebrity PLA singer Li Shuangjiang being held by police as one of five suspects in a gang rape.

It is not the boy's first brush with the law or public notoriety. Two years ago, he was convicted of driving an unregistered BMW without a licence and assaulting a couple after he rear-ended their car. It was not only the nine stitches to the head that the man had to endure, but the arrogance of the teen who dared them and witnesses to call the police as he laid into the couple.

The boy was sentenced to a year at a reform centre for juvenile delinquents and had only been released months before the alleged gang rape.

The blanket media coverage of the incident and intense scrutiny of the 74-year-old father and his son on the internet has left his mother begging for people to show the boy "tolerance" and allow him "room" to start a new life, but there is little sympathy.

While few people would deny underage offenders the chance for a fresh start, The Oriental Morning Post said that if the boy had committed such a crime just six months after his release from detention, it wasn't because of a lack of public patience and understanding.

Rather, it would be the result of the privileges such people enjoyed that made them feel they were above the law.

In contrast, the newspaper questioned why a man in Zhengzhou was detained for three days without charge for wearing a 6.3cm knife on a key chain while Li's son could drive around Beijing in an unlicensed car while carrying an imitation machine gun with impunity until the time of the assault.