The death of a 13-year-old boy, probably killed by students at his school who harassed him, reopens the debate in China on the situation of young people who remain in the countryside while their parents work in factories or in the city, often presented as the sacrifices of the years of strong growth.
Wang Ziyao, one of these “ children left behind “, according to the Chinese expression, just like the three young people under 14 suspected of having killed him, was raised by his grandparents in a village in Hebei, 440 kilometers south of Beijing.
On March 10, a Sunday, around 1 p.m., the teenager warned them that he was going to play with friends. With no news at the end of the afternoon, his grandfather tried to contact him but his phone did not answer, but he remembered seeing him charging it before leaving. The family sets out to look for him. She learned through school that he was often with these three boys but, when questioned, they initially denied knowing where Wang Ziyao was.
Harassment
It was only after exploitation of the village’s surveillance cameras that the involvement of the three young people was established, while the victim’s WeChat account, the Chinese social network, revealed that he had paid them the equivalent of 25 euros. The boy’s body was finally found the next day in a shallow hole dug in an abandoned greenhouse in the middle of wheat fields, his face damaged, probably by blows from a shovel. The family’s lawyer, Zang Fanqing, said he had been harassed for a long time.
The remains were taken away by the local police, then the family complained for several days about the lack of an autopsy. This was finally carried out on the night of March 17 to 18, a few hours after the broadcast of a real-time video followed by thousands of people – but interrupted live – during which the family’s lawyer recounted the police’s refusal to let them see the body.
The affair, which has had a huge impact on social networks and in the Chinese press, opens up two distinct subjects. One concerns the criminal liability of minors. Children over twelve and under fourteen years of age can only be criminally prosecuted with the agreement of the Central Prosecutor’s Office and cannot be sentenced to the death penalty. On social networks, many, probably under the emotion of the case, are demanding exemplary sentences for the young suspects.
“Psychological fragility”
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