By NOAH WEI
Society Correspondent
ZHENGZHOU (China Daily Show) — It was the week Jin Ji lost several of his front teeth, as well as any illusions about the nature of the Chinese state.
The 54-year-old farmer-turned-developer had long been an enthusiastic supporter of the ruling party, having recently run for election at his local Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, paying $40,000 in private donations to various officials.
Jin was stunned, therefore, when he went to withdraw cash from the Zhecheng Huanghuai International Agriculture Bank (ZHIAB) this April, and was told his funds had been frozen, and not to mention it to anyone.
“I was flabbergasted,” Ji told China Daily Show. “This is the kind of thing you’d expect from Changsha Global County Development Bank, maybe, not the Zhecheng Huanghuai International Agriculture Bank.”
Ji showed CDS a dog-eared brochure describing ZHIAB as a blue-chip international financial conglomerate, widely respected across lower-east Henan for its wealth-management products, and explained he wasn’t some rube who only reads the Zhengzhou Express.
“I also check Xinhua every morning,” Ji said. “I’m no fool. This cat know what time it is.” Glancing at his watch, Ji noted it was two o’clock — nearly three hours to supper.
Today, Ji is just one of thousands of patriotic customers now unable to access their funds — so far, four Henanese banks claim to have had cash embezzled by a fugitive employee.
Last week, following weeks of low-key demonstrations, the swindled depositors were swarmed in broad daylight by dozens of white-shirted thugs.
Police, who watched the attack for several hours, say they have no leads or suspects.
Ji was one of the many who ended up spending the night in hospital; he said the food wasn’t so bad.
But Ji and others are angry at their assault at the hands of plainclothes assailant, and with ZHIAB, Zhengzhou police, and local Communist Party officials — but not Xi Jinping, who, Ji stressed, would be outraged if he learned what was happening to loyal party members in Henan.
Having invested every last fen from selling his medicinal ant-farm business to a bewildered neighbour, Ji says doesn’t know what happened to the nearly $100,000 he invested with ZHIAB, but he is currently being charged daily overdraft fees of nearly $800.
After being contacted by CDS, a spokesperson from ZHIAB said the bank would consider lowering the charges.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Ji tells CDS. “I read all the top financial wires in China — Bowun, Caifut, BlomDing. If there was a problem, surely I’d know about it.”
Pointing to a recent Beijing News survey, Ji circled a pie chart that showed China’s authorities are globally renowned for their openness and adherence to law.
“This is the sort of thing I would expect in France or Canada,” said Ji. “Not China — unless it was some sort of foreign plot.”
But after being threatened by authorities for complaining about the assault, Ji says he is reconsidering China’s whole-process people’s democracy.
“You see this sort of stuff happen to Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, poor people, petitioners, the homeless, pretty much everyone else,” Ji shakes his head. “But you never expect it could happen to you.”
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