城管被羣衆毆打 凸顯現代社會矛盾

Earlier this month, thousands of people crowded around a group of chengguan in southern China, severely beating and bloodying the officers. This week, the country's state broadcaster issued footage of the incident that shows just how deeply on edge many segments of society are, and how quickly they can be inflamed.

本月早些時候在中國南方某地，幾千民衆圍着一羣城管隊員暴打，致使這些隊員們頭破血流。本週，中國官方電視臺發佈了那次事件的視頻。這一事件顯示出中國各種社會矛盾積壓得有多深，以及矛盾激化的程度有多快。

Though China enjoys a low violent crime rate compared with the West, in recent years, violence has experienced an uptick. The average number of violent assaults by dissatisfied patients on medical personnel, for example, rose 30% between 2008 and 2012, including several fatal cases. The country's police recently began arming themselves in greater numbers, in part to try to ward against future incidents such as a mass slaying at a train station in Kunming that left 33 dead in March.

Youku雖然與西方相比，中國暴力犯罪發生率較低，但近年來，暴力活動呈上升趨勢。舉例來說，2008年至2012年，心懷不滿的患者對醫護人員的暴力襲擊事件數量上升了30%，包括幾起致死案件。中國警方最近開始升級裝備，一定程度上是爲了防範未來再次出現類似今年3月昆明火車站那樣的大規模傷人事件。昆明事件導致33人死亡。

As this month's beating in Cangnan, Zhejiang province, showed, crowds can swiftly turn fractious and uncontrollable. For many years, antigovernment protests in China were largely confined to rural areas and carried out by farmers who had been thrown off their land. More recently, they've begun to involve migrant workers, who have been known to torch buildings, overturn police cars and smash windows.

而本月浙江省蒼南縣的打人事件顯示出，羣衆情緒可能很快暴怒失控。多年來，中國的反政府抗議活動基本上侷限於農村地區，進行抗議的都是被強行徵地的農民。最近，這類活動開始有農民工參與，抗議者曾經點燃建築、掀翻警車、砸碎窗戶。

But if the sea of smartphones amid the angry mob in Zhejiang is any indication, participants there weren't just disaffected migrant workers or the dispossessed but firmly planted in the country's middle class.

但浙江打人事件中，憤怒的打人者中不少人拿着智能手機，這說明參與者不僅僅是心懷不滿的農民工或失地農民，還包括了中國的中產階級。

The incident was touched off when chengguan, China's urban para-police, began beating a man in a white shirt while trying to take away his cellphone after they spotted him photographing them. Footage showed the man lying on the ground with bloodied clothes, as passersby gaped and photographed him.

這起事件的起因是，城管隊員發現一名身穿白襯衫的男子在拍攝他們的行動，之後試圖奪走該男子的手機時開始毆打此人。視頻顯示此人躺在地上，衣服上沾着血跡，路人圍着他，拍下了他的照片。

So far, so much par for the course--China's chengguan, charged with maintaining public order, are notorious for roughing up street vendors and protesters, sometimes with fatal results. But the chengguan, surely, didn't expect what happened next. As a local store owner told CCTV, 'Someone shouted, 'Chengguan are beating someone!''

至此，整個過程都是意料之中的——在中國，負責維護公共秩序的城管因粗暴對待街頭小販和抗議者、有時甚至鬧出人命而聲名狼藉。但這次事件中的城管肯定沒有預料到接下來發生的事情。一位當地店主對中央電視臺說，有人大喊，城管打人啦！

An angry crowd surged, throwing stones and pushing violently up against masses of police who tried to stop them. Armed with cellphones, members of the mob quickly posted news of the incident online, attracting thousands. Several chengguan were beaten by the crowd. They tried to hide in a van, and its windows were smashed; two lost blood and went into shock. As video footage details, when an ambulance arrived at the scene to try to reach the officers, it was promptly surrounded by a sea of people who tipped it over onto its side and then cheered.

憤怒的羣衆涌上來，朝試圖阻止他們的大羣警察扔石頭並激烈推搡。人羣中有不少人拿着手機，很快就將這起事件的消息發佈到網上，吸引了成千上萬人關注。幾名城管隊員被人羣毆打。他們試圖躲進一輛廂式車裏，但車子的窗戶被打碎；兩人失血休克。視頻中顯示，一輛救護車抵達現場試圖救出幾名城管隊員，但馬上就被人羣包圍。人們掀翻了救護車，然後發出歡呼。

CCTV said all five chengguan involved in the incident are in administrative detention, along with 11 suspected of beating the officers.

中央電視臺稱，當事的所有五名城管目前都已被行政拘留，同時被拘留的還有11名涉嫌毆打城管的路人。

The dramatic footage is a window into the fights occasionally waged on China's streets, as well as the depths of mistrust with which the chengguan are held. When two chengguan were killed in 2009 during a scuffle with a street vendor in northeastern China, the country's social media networks subsequently lit up with support for the vendor responsible for their deaths, following claims by his wife that he acted in self-defense.

這段頗具戲劇性的視頻爲人們瞭解中國街頭不時發生的此類衝突提供了一個窗口，同時也揭示出民衆對城管的不信任程度之深。2009年，在中國東北，兩名城管在與一名街頭小販扭打時被殺。這名小販的妻子稱，丈夫當時的行爲只是出於自衛。對於這名對兩個城管之死負有責任的小販，中國的社交媒體網絡隨即展開了聲援。

For its part, the country's state broadcaster was intent on stressing the fact that this month's crowd amassed in part because of people hearing information about the incident on social media platforms such as Weibo. In the aftermath of the incident, some had spread information--ultimately untrue--that the man attempting to photograph the chengguan had been killed. 'After [such information spread], the situation started to get out of control,' the newscaster said.

關於本月的事件，中央電視臺特別強調了這樣一個事實：此次之所以會出現民衆聚集，部分原因是人們通過微博(Weibo)等社交媒體平臺聽說了有關此事的一些消息。在事件發生後，一些人散佈消息說，試圖給城管拍照的男子已經身亡。但這一消息並不屬實。中央電視臺稱，在有人散佈了這種消息後，局面開始失控。

The government has launched a concerted campaign to uproot the spread of rumors it deems harmful to society, including going so far as to institute prison sentences for people who have posted messages on social media containing untrue information reposted 500 times or more.

爲根除在官方看來危害社會的謠言傳播，中國政府已經展開一場協調行動。其中一個行動就是規定如果在社交媒體發佈的包含不實信息的消息被轉發500次及以上，則消息發佈者將被追究刑事責任。

The volatile nature of China's crowds is a sign of the challenges the government faces, and a window into what's motivated such draconian laws. If a single spark can start a prairie fire, perhaps it's no surprise that the incident in Zhejiang has prompted such a round of introspection by state media, as well as further fuel for the state's antirumor campaign. Nor, perhaps, is it surprising that the country's budget for internal security spending has grown faster than its national defense spending in recent years.

中國大衆的不穩定性顯示出政府面臨的挑戰，同時也揭示出政府出臺這種嚴厲法規的原因。如果星火能夠燎原，那麼浙江的這起事件引發了中國官方媒體這樣一輪反思並進一步促使中國打擊網絡謠言可能不足爲奇。或許同樣不足爲奇的是，近些年來中國在國內治安上的預算支出增速快於國防支出。

As the Beijing Youth Daily pointed out, though, 'Simply criticizing 'rumors' is easy--and those who spread rumors will be punished by the law. What we need to understand is why the average person believes it's better to believe these rumors, rather than disbelieve them.'

但正如《北京青年報》所說的，簡單譴責“謠言”是容易的，造謠傳謠者也自當受到法律制裁，但必須追問的是，一般人對這樣的“謠言”，爲何總是寧可信其有，不可信其無？