This week, the story of Ningxia land owner Sun Guoyou (孙国友) went completely viral on Chinese social media.
Various Chinese media outlets, from Sina News to Beijing News and The Paper all covered the story of the old man who was seeing his enormous land destroyed because a nearby coal mine had cut off water supplies. Although they had allegedly promised Guo to resume water supplies on March 27, they did not follow through.
A video of Sun kneeling on the ground and begging for water went viral on Douyin and Weibo, where dozens of hashtags relating to the story received millions of views (read our earlier story here).
One crucial aspect of the story is how Sun Guoyou allegedly has been combating desertification and improving the soil conditions of the barren land through afforestation, by planting trees and irrigating the land.
This is one of the various reasons why netizens initially felt sorry for Sun and wanted to help him out. People were rooting for the underdog, supporting the seemingly weaker Sun against the more powerful coal mine company and local authorities.
He was also called the ‘modern-day Yugong’ by some, referring to the old Chinese fable about an old man who was called foolish for persistently trying to move a mountain, yet finally succeeded in doing so. The Chinese idiom about “the foolish old man moving a mountain” (愚公移山 yúgōng yíshān) is often used as a figure of speech for persisting despite hardship.
But the more viral Sun’s story went since March 29, the more people started doubting his story and called into question whether Sun was genuinely an underdog or just a business owner exploiting his land and, through the help of social media, manipulating the circumstances to his benefit.
On March 30, Weibo knowledge blogger ‘PYGZ’ (@平原公子赵胜) was among many other netizens accusing Sun of planting the wrong species of trees and raising cattle and sheep on his land, causing more soil erosion instead of improving soil quality. Rather than controlling desertification (“治沙”), Sun’s practices are creating sand dunes (“造沙”) instead, the blogger argued.
Why would Sun do such a thing? According to PYGZ, the state subsidizes windbreak forests that help prevent desertification (“防沙林”): 500-800 yuan ($72-$116) per Chinese “mu” (亩), which is about 666 square meters / 0.165 acre. With a land as big as Sun’s, the annual subsidy would be millions of yuan (or more than $1M per year).
“This is what combating desertification in Ningxia actually looks like,” charity blogger Sui Jiao (@碎叫) wrote, sharing photos of desert control work: “If you are concerned about desertification control, you can donate money to the China Green Foundation (中国绿化基金会) to plant trees.”
Desert control work in Ningxia, image via Weibo @碎叫
Desert control work in Ningxia, image via Weibo @碎叫
Another thing that came up in critical discussions on Sun’s case is how he previously received over seven million yuan (more than $1M) in compensation from the Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (神华宁夏煤业集团) for economic losses caused by them occupying forest land (#孙国友此前727万判决书曝光#).
As more netizens are starting to dive deeper into the facts behind Sun’s desperate kneeling video, Sun’s family stated that they did not want to further escalate the issue and were just focused on saving their trees for now (#跪地求水林场主家属称不想事情升级#).
The nationalist Weibo blogger Ziwuxiashi (@子午侠士), who has over one million followers, posted an image of a wolf sneaking away, writing: “They want to get away, but I’m afraid it’s too late, the [wolf’s ] tail has already been exposed.” The blogger suggested that the Sun family might have enjoyed the spotlight, but do not want people to dig deeper.
Many others agreed, suggesting that Sun and his family staged the dramatic video to draw attention to their case, but now want to retreat before more details come out showing that Sun might not be the underdog he made himself out to be.
“Netizens are not like toilet paper that you can wipe your ass with and get rid of once no longer needed,” one Weibo user wrote.
Chinese political commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) also commented on the issue – as he does whenever social stories go viral like this, – and wrote that he understood why netizens would doubt Guo’s sincerity or even say the entire video was staged.
At the same time, he reminded people that issues such as these are never black and white, arguing it is understandable that Guo earns income from his land and that it would only be right for the coal mine company to supply water to Guo if that is what they legally agreed on.
Hu suggested that, while many details in this story still have not come out, netizens might want to wait to make an absolute judgment in the case since issues such as these are usually not clear-cut and can be more complex than they initially seem.
More updates will follow.
By Manya Koetse
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The post Modern-Day Yugong or Greedy Wolf? Critical Discussions after Ningxia Land Owner Goes Viral Begging for Water appeared first on What's on Weibo.