Grab / Mixed bag of crimes that "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people", part 2

In recent weeks, the odd expression "kǒudài zuì 口袋罪" (lit., "pocket / bag crime"} has become a hot topic).  It's a vague, catch-all term without any juridical / official standing, yet it has left many people troubled over its implications.  To understand why people are unsettled over such a seemingly zany, innocuous term, we will look at it from various angles.

‘Pocket crime’ — Phrase of the Week Politics & Current Affairs A new draft law in China may dole out punishments for “harming the feelings of the Chinese people.” It has sparked criticism in China.

Andrew Methven, The China Project (9/15/23)

The context

A draft amendment to China’s Public Security Administration Punishments Law (治安管理处罚法 zhì’ān guǎnlǐ chǔfá fǎ) was published on the Chinese People’s Congress website on September 5. It is open for public consultation before China’s lawmakers finalize changes to the law.

One proposal in the draft has sparked debate in China:

In this revision, the second and third paragraphs of Article 34 indicate newly added behaviors that should be punished, including “wearing clothes and accessories in public places that are detrimental to the spirit of the Chinese nation and hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation”; and “producing, disseminating, and publicizing things or remarks that are harmful to the feelings of the Chinese people.”

在该修订中，第三十四条的第二款和第三款意见显示了新增应处罚的事项，包括“在公共场所穿着、佩戴有损中华民族精神、伤害中华民族感情的服饰、标志的；制作、传播、宣扬、散布有损中华民族感情、伤害中华民族感情的物品或者言论的。

Zài gāi xiūdìng zhōng, dì sānshísì tiáo de dì èr kuǎn hé dì sān kuǎn yìjiàn xiǎnshìle xīnzēng yīng chǔfá de shìxiàng, bāokuò “zài gōnggòng chǎngsuǒ chuānzhuó, pèidài yǒusǔn zhōnghuá mínzú jīngshén, shānghài zhōnghuá mínzú gǎnqíng de fúshì, biāozhì de; zhìzuò, chuánbò, xuānyáng, sànbù yǒusǔn zhōnghuá mínzú gǎnqíng, shānghài zhōnghuá mínzú gǎnqíng de wùpǐn huòzhě yánlùn de.”

Recommended punishments under the proposal include detention of up to 15 days and fines up to 5,000 yuan ($688).

But “harming the feelings of the Chinese people” is vague and subjective, as one commentator notes:

The meanings of “harming the spirit of the Chinese nation” and “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people” are ambiguous. If implemented, it may be a typical “pocket crime,” which is likely to be abused.

“有损中华民族精神”、“伤害中华民族感情”含义模棱两可。如果实行的话，则可能是典型的“口袋罪”。有可能同饱受争议的寻衅滋事罪和曾经的流氓罪一样，极大可能被滥用。

“Yǒusǔn zhōnghuá mínzú jīngshén,” “shānghài zhōnghuá mínzú gǎnqíng” hányì móléng liǎngkě. Rúguǒ shíxíng de huà, zé kěnéng shì diǎnxíng de “kǒudài zuì.” Yǒu kěnéng tóng bǎoshòu zhēngyì de xúnxìn zīshì zuì hé céngjīng de liúmáng zuì yíyàng, jí dà kěnéng bèi lànyòng.

And with that, we have our Phrase of the Week.

What it means

Pocket crime is a Chinese legal term first coined in 1979. It describes a crime category that is vague, broad, and can be open to interpretation and abuse by law enforcement authorities.

Three types of crime were identified as pocket crimes in 1979:

The crime of capitalist speculation, the crime of hooliganism, and the crime of dereliction of duty.

投机倒把罪、流氓罪和玩忽职守罪。

Tóujīdǎobǎ zuì, liúmáng zuì hé wànhū zhíshǒu zuì.

These crimes were further defined in an attempt to bring more clarity and less ambiguity to the law: For example, hooliganism (流氓罪 liúmáng zuì) was divided into a number of crimes that were supposed to be more specific. One of those was picking quarrels and provoking trouble (寻衅滋事 xúnxìn zīshì).

Picking quarrels and provoking trouble has also become controversial in recent years for the same reasons, and has been described as a “pocket crime.” The scope of its definition was broadened in 1997, and then again in 2013.

These changes have been criticized as part of the increasing suppression of civil society in China.

In August this year, an investigation by China’s High Court found that picking quarrels and provoking trouble was also being used widely and abused by law enforcement officials. And this week, it was reported that an American citizen had been detained in China under the crime in 2020, and has recently been released.

The latest draft amendment to China’s Public Security Administration Punishments Law is potentially another capacious grab-all category of criminality akin to picking quarrels and provoking trouble, notes Geremie R. Barmé, the editor of China Heritage.

So our translation of this week’s phrase is: “A nebulous catchall legal instrument open to interpretation and abuse.”

VHM:  Why should the totalitarian, dictatorial CCP regime give a fig about online criticism?

Are enough people finally getting fed up with, sick and tired of, the corruption and incompetence of their rulers that their complaints are swelling to the point that the Party is actually starting to take note?

China’s Plan to Criminalize ‘Hurting National Sentiment’ Draws Widespread Criticism Online

There has been overwhelming criticism online regarding China’s proposed revisions to its Public Security Administration Punishments Law. The revisions would penalize acts that “damage the spirit of the Chinese nation and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”

The draft revisions, introduced in late August, add several new punishable acts. They do not precisely define what constitutes “damaging the spirit of the Chinese nation.” The proposed revisions prescribe detention of 5-10 days or fines of 1000-3000 yuan for wearing, forcing others to wear, producing, or spreading items or remarks that have such a damaging effect to the national spirit. Harsher penalties apply in severe cases.

After China’s state media reported on the draft law, Chinese social media erupted with skepticism. Opinion leaders called on netizens to lobby the National People’s Congress opposing the legislation.

Shanghai Fudan University professor Qu Weiguo said there is currently no legal definition of “the spirit of the Chinese nation.” He worried that hastily writing such a law without clear boundaries could lead to confusion in enforcement, abuse of related charges, and vulgarization of the “spirit.” Qu questioned how the law could determine whether the “feelings of the Chinese nation” were hurt, since the subject is the entire nation rather than individual citizens. He said authorities should be prudent about codifying such crimes, which require solid evidence. Vague definitions could enable rampant abuse, with serious judicial consequences.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), September 5, 2023 https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202309050404.aspx

Briefings | | September 6, 2023 | |

(Chinascope)

I repeat, although "kǒudài zuì 口袋罪" (lit., "pocket / bag crime"} may have legal implications, it is not yet an enacted, juridical term.  The fact that the government is now trying to turn it into law with heavy penalties for infractions is what's causing people to stand up and complain about it.

Observations by the Chinese legal scholar Donald Clarke

If you’re wondering what the term means, it's a catch-all category for activity that criminalizes anything the authorities don’t like but didn’t mention specifically in the Criminal Law (effective 1979; there was no formal criminal code before then). In the 1979 code, that crime was liúmángzuì 流氓罪 ("hooliganiam"): it defined certain types of acts as liúmángzuì 流氓罪, and then added a final type of act: qítā liúmáng xíngwéi 其他流氓行为 ("other types of hooligan / rogue behavior"). Hence the characterization as a catch-all crime. In the current Criminal Code, the pocket crime of choice is xúnxìn zīshì 寻衅滋事 ("picking quarrels and provoking trouble"), which is widely used to criminalize all kinds of unwelcome behavior that doesn’t fit anywhere else in the Criminal Law (having a dinner with your activist lawyer friends, for example, or posting a tweet mocking XJP).

If you know that but your question is why “pocket crime” has that meaning—i.e., what do pockets have to do with it?—then I don’t know the answer, but I can circulate the question to my Chinese law listserv and see if anyone knows. I think the answer may be that "kǒudài 口袋" here means “bag”, not “pocket”, and the idea is that it’s kind of like Santa’s sack: an all-purpose container into which a limitless amount of miscellaneous things can be stuffed.

I think it’s generally used in a critical sense, but more because the reality it describes is something the speaker usually disapproves of. I don’t think it’s inherently pejorative, or at least not terribly so. I can imagine someone like Deng saying, “We need a 'kǒudài zuì 口袋罪' (lit., 'bag / sack crime'} to deal with crafty criminals who 'zuān fǎlǜ de kòngz 钻法律的空子!' ('take advantage of legal loopholes'). But this is all based on just a very vague gǎnjué 感觉 ("feeling") I have; I wouldn’t want to stake a lot on it.

But yes, it’s not a juridical term. It doesn’t appear in any legislation, and I doubt it appears in court judgments (although that’s easily tested at least to the extent of published court judgments by doing a word search in the major databases).

I agree with Don.  I've always felt that "xúnxìn zīshì 寻衅滋事" ("picking quarrels and provoking trouble") is a monumentally lǒngtǒng 籠統 ("general and unspecific; sweeping and vague" charge that can be applied to virtually anything that annoys the authorities, and it can be used to punish people all the way from a week or so in jail and fines starting from 5,000 RMB up to life imprisonment and hundreds of thousands of RMB (or much more) as well as torture with psychoactive drugs and other diabolical means.

What's freaking people out now is that the government authorities already have "xúnxìn zīshì 寻衅滋事" ("picking quarrels and provoking trouble") to torment citizens, but that they are now seeking to add another even more widely applicable legal tool, kǒudài zuì 口袋罪 ("bag / sack crime"), to their arsenal.

Basic vocabulary

kǒudài 口袋     pocket (bag sewn into clothing)     bag; sack

 kǒudài zuì 口袋罪

    (law, figurative) fuzzily-defined offences; catch-all offences  

As for the  wording "pocket crime" to render kǒudài zuì 口袋罪 into English, which makes the expression sound even stranger than it really is, I think "sack crime" or "bag crime" might work a bit better to convey the notion that it's something you just randomly toss things into.  I admit, though, that most people invariably think of "pocket" when they see kǒudài 口袋.  However, I recall from reading premodern fiction and essays that kǒudài 口袋 often referred to "bag" or "sack" for carrying miscellaneous items.  Furthermore, a bag is a more primitive device than a pocket, which is harder to make and sew into a garment.

Conclusion

Where crimes that "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" get to be really scary is when they are perpetrated by the Chinese people themselves, on an ever-increasing scale, as seems to be the case nowadays with wearing the wrong kind of clothing, and so forth.

"Victor H. Mair wrote in 2011 that while the phrase "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" resulted in 17,000 online hits, rewriting the phrase as "hurt the feelings of the Japanese people" only yields 178 hits, and the same phrase rewritten with 17 other nationalities provides zero hits.

    — "Hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" (Wikipedia)

Selected readings

• "'Hurt(s) the feelings of the Chinese people'" (9/12/11)
• "Phrase of the Week: Chinese People’s Hurt Feelings", by Anne Henochowicz, China Digital Times (3/27/13)
• "China’s 'New' Language of Diplomacy", Asia Sentinel (7/4/14)

[Thanks to Don Keyser and Geremie R. Barmé]