Reports of rumour and prejudice
A farmer's wife was killed on her way to the market, her skull crushed by a white BMW, but the owner of the luxury car got away with a light sentence. The story had all the elements to stir people to righteous indignation in a country increasingly obsessed with the rich-poor divide.
And it did. For more than a month, the BMW Incident, as it was known, has become the most talked about story on the internet, drawing 250,000 postings in news portals. Responding to the public outcry, the police and the provincial government in the northeastern city of Harbin have promised to get to the bottom of the case before the Chinese New Year.
On October 16, farmer Dai Yiquan and his wife, Liu Zhongxia, took a tractor loaded with green onions to the city's market. Avoiding a van coming towards them, Mr Dai swerved to the right and swiped the side mirror of a BMW parked on the roadside.
The angry car owner, Su Xiuwen, hurled insults at the couple and hit them with her handbag after they got down from the tractor. She got into her car, started the engine and drove through the crowded street, killing Liu and injuring 12 onlookers. She was arrested, but released on medical grounds.
On November 20, the case was heard at Harbin District Court. No victims or family members of the deceased showed up because they had settled out of court with Su. She claimed she was trying to reverse the car, but had accidentally shifted into a forward gear, and, compounding her mistake, hit the accelerator, not the brake. The judge ruled that it was an accident, and Su was given a two-year jail sentence, suspended for three years.
Rumours began circulating that Su had got off lightly because her husband, a local business tycoon, was rumoured to be the son or step-son of a top provincial official. Although no witnesses stepped forward in public, anonymous sources quoted on the internet claimed to have heard Su telling the couple: 'I'll knock you dead.' Many people came to believe that she should have been tried for murder and the court decision was a miscarriage of justice.