Rich men who drive luxury cars in China's cities have become a thorny topic again after a speeding Mitsubishi sports car ran down and killed Tan Zhuo, a 25-year-old man in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province on May 7. Wide criticism and fury from the public were ignited online and have resulted in calls for luxury-car drivers to restrain themselves when they drive out.

The photo taken on May 7, 2009 shows the two friends who raced with Hu Bin kidding with others as if nothing had happened, when they visited the scene after the accident. The young men, stood around, smoking and chatting, are believed to be from rich families. [Guangzhou Daily]

The Mitsubishi driver was Hu Bin, a 20-year-old university student from a rich family that owns four cars. When the tragedy occurred, he was racing with two other friends, who were driving a Ferrari and a Porsche, in downtown Hangzhou.

The car accident also resulted in doubt from the cyber community. On May 8, local police quoted Hu as saying after questioning that he was driving his illegally modified car at 70km per hour on the road when the tragedy took place. However, many people doubted that a car driven at 70 km per hour could have caused as much damage as it did to Tan Zhuo.

Later, rumors spread online that Hu Bin's mother was a local political advisor; one of Hu's friends, one of the other racers, was the son of a chief official in Hangzhou. Furthermore, it is reported that Hu's friends had once said "money can iron out everything" at the scene of the accident.

Based on those rumors, netizens suspected that local police could fairly deal with the case that involved drivers with 'big-named-family-background' and that the '70 km per hour' quotation was an attempt to help Hu mitigate penalties.

Although the authorities later clarified that the rumors were unfounded and apologized for the hasty and inaccurate news release on the car's speed, which has been modified to being between 84.1 km to 101.2 km per hour, the public anger didn't subside. Critics argue that the tolerance of police must be blamed for the prevalence of speeders and illegally modified cars, usually owned by rich men.

File photo of Tan Zhuo, the victim of May 7 traffic accident. [Guangzhou Daily]

This case and related rumors reflect the stereotyped yet often bad image of the rich in China. In Chinese eyes the rich are usually rude, arrogant, ostentatious and disregarding of both laws and life. Furthermore, they are probably in collusion with corrupt officials. Even if they break the law, money and powerful relationships will help them get out of trouble.

Some rich people might complain that those stereotypes are unfounded, but I would rather choose to believe that not all of them are rootless. After all, we have read too many news reports surrounding rich drivers and their bad-behaviors. Just take a few examples here:

On April 7, 2009 a 22-year-old man drove a speeding Porsche Cayenne and killed three workers who were wearing reflective vests and cleaning a road in Yichang, a city of central China's Hubei Province.

On August 29, 2008, a young man drove his BMW and intentionally killed a man over a quarrel in a KTV club in Wenzhou, a city located in east China's Zhejiang Province.

On August 26, 2008, a Mercedes-Benz Roadster hit a cyclist in Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. The driver merely threw banknotes from the window rather than get out of the car to check on the victim.

All those drivers, despite the fact they drove different cars in different cities, have similarities - they are labeled with the tag of 'wealthy' due to the luxury cars they drove; they lack the basic reverence for life because they didn't realize that their reckless behavior had caused other people's pain or indeed cost them their lives. Their misdeeds become the evidence that strengthens the public perception of rich people, often unfavorable of course, although some of the wealthy donate large amounts of money to charity.

To help re-wash their image clean, the wealthy have to learn from the lessons and restrain themselves as laws do not permit anyone to hurt others at will and money cannot 'iron out everything'.

If we get back to the case we mentioned initially, 25-year-old Tan Zhuo is not the only victim of that deadly accident - Tan lost his life while Hu, the young driver, will spend years behind bars. If only Hu had realized the danger and had driven his car more carefully the terrible mess could have been avoided and this ugly issue would not have reared its head again.

(CRI May 18, 2009)