Violence in Context

This is a follow up to the Post QC Blog where I said that we’d experienced some violence in Dongguan.First, STOP writing to tell me “See! China is doomed by social unrest.”  And “China’s a hellhole.”  This is not true, this is not what I meant when I shared a “security note.”Second, STOP writing to tell me that I “just hate China.  Stop sharing stories like this that are just B***S***.”  Every single story I share here is true.  Because you read it out of context does not make my experiences any less true.This is what I said:

Second, a security note.  Two other people (who shall remain nameless), while in a different part of Dongguan today, saw a group of people on the side of the road hack another person to death (at least they think he died) with a machete.   They kept on driving, sped up even, to get out of there as quickly as possible.If you have money or are alone I would highly recommend that you DO NOT go out at night in any of the industrial areas outside of Shenzhen.  This would include Songgang, Dongguan, Longgang, Bao’an, Guanlan, Shiyan, Huizhou and other areas with tons of (unemployed) migrant workers and not a lot of policing or economic development.I’ve seen fights, I’ve seen people get robbed and beaten, I’ve seen a woman and child get run over by large dump trucks, I’ve even seen a dead body on the street (at least I think it was dead), I’ve had family tell me about kidnappings they’ve seen, I’ve had family robbed at knife point and I’ve been pick-pocketed numerous times myself.  I’ve had clients tell me about huge gang fights they’ve see while making side excursions in shopping malls!  I even chased down and dragged to the police station two guys who tried to steal my bike once.  But I’ve never seen anything like this before.You need to make sure that being here is really worth it for you.  And if you are staying here, you need to take the security threat seriously.  The risk is increased with more and more unemployed people loitering around.

It’s sad to me that an honest side comment on danger—meant to be a simple warning—gets all the attention at a time where there should be much more focus on other issues (QC, Finance, general economy, etc).  Some people are now using my experiences to justify their description of Dongguang as a "hellhole" (comments on Fool’s Mt).  Let me explain the situations and all the events so that you, who are using this to claim the social destruction, can calm down a bit.First, I am honestly afraid of living in China for an extended period of time.  But it’s not a hellhole.  I’m much more scared of the traffic and the poison food than I am of getting robbed/killed.  Honestly, I was much more scared of getting killed while driving in South Chicago in ’98 with Utah plates (Jazz/Bulls NBA Finals) on my car than I am of violence in Dongguan.Second, not all of the events that I listed were in Dongguan and not all of them are this year and not all of them were even in Mainland China.  I’ve been here, in SZ, for 7 and in Asia for almost 20 years now and I’ve seen a lot of stuff.  Here are the details with dates/places so there is no misunderstanding.

• Hacking on the street—Monday, Feb 2, 2009.
• Fights on the streets—Chongqing ’96, Bangkok ’98, Gaoxiong ’99, Shenzhen ’04, Songgang ’05, Shenzhen ’07.
• Robberies and beatings—Taizhong ’00, Shenzhen ’05, Songgang ‘06
• Attacked by guys with a pipe—Jiayi ‘00
• Dead body--BKK '91, Guangzhou '07
• Woman get run over—Taipei ’01,
• Woman and baby get run over—Xiamen ‘06
• Child getting hit by a hit and run driver--BKK '08
• Kidnappings that family saw—Dongguang ‘08
• Family robbed at knife point—Guangzhou ‘02
• Pick pocketed—Shenzhen 3 times in 7 years here, once in Taiwan, once in Chongqing.
• Mall brawl—Louhu ‘06
• Bike fiasco—Shenzhen ‘05

Finally, you can see that it’s not all Dongguan.  It’s not all Mainland China.  And it not all this last couple of months.  So yes, be careful, but don’t see the end of the world in this (in the US stock market, maybe, but not in Dongguan).  The violence is certainly bad here but it’s NOT getting worse, from my perspective.  And it’s NOT worse in Dongguang compared to other industrial areas either.  Unemployment is bad now and it’s always been dangerous in the outskirts of Shenzhen; I dare say it's risker now, but I've not personally seen a big change in the last year.  Hong Kong news has been reporting things like this for almost 20 years now.I'm just saying: Be Careful.