Sixty-nine year old Fu Daxin was sentenced to two years in prison for a robbery carried out in the square of Beijing Railway Station. Hoping to be looked after in prison, Fu surprisingly begged the court to give him a more severe punishment.

Fu is a farmer from Hunan Province, and all his siblings live a hard life. As an old bachelor, he was not strong enough to do farm work. Even though the village committee provided him with a 600 yuan subsidy every year, he struggled to get by.

Finding it impossible to make a living by collecting refuse in Guangzhou, Fu decided to publicize his problem in an astonishing way--by committing a robbery in Beijing. A woman and a girl were robbed on September 8, and he was officially arrested by Beijing Railway Transportation Prosecutorate ten days later. On November 24, the Beijing railway court ruled that the punishment for the old man was two years in prison and a fine of 6,000 yuan.

Fu said that he knew it was wrong to rob, but he was too old to make a living. He would behave properly and hoped to stay in the prison as a worker, removing any worries about his future.

Li Helin, a researcher with the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, noted that this was a one-off case. The state has taken note of the problems of caring for the elderly in rural areas and has taken specific measures to address the problem of people who do not have endowment insurance. Because support from one's own family is the main source of care for the elderly in rural China, the state has so far had only special relief measures targeting the poor who have no children.

(China.org.cn by Fan Junmei, December 23, 2008)