Victimized Chinese students
In China, records of your schooling and achievements therein are tracked by a single, government-protected file. Sometimes, corrupt officials steal these files from poor, high achieving individuals. They then sell the files or use them for their own advancement. Victims are left with absolutely no recourse. They must find menial jobs far below their training. The article, Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future, goes on to explain what happened when a group of parents tried to petition for document recovery on their children’s behalf:
The government’s answer, they said, was to reject any inquiry, place the graduates’ parents under police surveillance and repeatedly detain them. Last February, they said, five parents trying to petition the national government were locked in an unofficial jail in Beijing for nine days.
This problem is not an isolated incident, rather, it is a symptom of a political system that is profoundly broken. A system which, through the Great Firewall of China, is attempting to censor the entire internet. A system which governs 1.3 billion people. 20% of the Earth.
We’ve got a problem.