No cash? Just scan my phone, says robber in China – China’s latest society and culture news
A summary of the top news in Chinese society and culture for November 7, 2017. Part of the daily The China Project newsletter, a convenient package of China’s business, political, and cultural news delivered to your inbox for free. Subscribe here.
“Mobile payment really changes our lives — in every aspect.”
“This man is too stupid to be a robber.”
— From Weibo (in Chinese)
As the New York Times puts it (paywall), “in urban China, cash is rapidly becoming obsolete.” Mobile payments are so popular that even beggars use QR codes to solicit donations from mobile phone users. Now even muggers are using mobile phones to steal money in the street. A news program (in Chinese) on Zhejiang satellite TV recently covered a robbery in the city of Ningbo, where a criminal forced a woman to send him money on WeChat by scanning his QR code.
The crime happened at midnight on November 1. The victim was walking through an alley when a man armed with a knife stopped her and asked her to surrender all the cash that she had. After taking 300 yuan ($45) from the woman’s wallet, the robber, apparently unhappy with the small amount of cash, forced the woman to show him how much she had in her WeChat Wallet, a mobile payment service that allows users to easily transfer money by scanning a QR code. The robber then asked the woman to scan his QR code and demanded another 450 yuan ($67) from her WeChat digital payment account.
The criminal was smart enough to wear a mask during the robbery, but the money transfer record on the victim’s smartphone quickly gave away all the information about the robber because setting up a WeChat Wallet account requires real-name registration. He was arrested by the local police.
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Architectural heritage and Liang Sicheng
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Plagiarism
Producers of hit TV show about corruption in China facing US$2.7m plagiarism suit / SCMP -
Health
2 million Chinese mothers carry strep bacteria that can be fatal to newborns, study finds / SCMP -
Chinese abroad
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“Migrant workers’ children are pushed to the margins of China’s biggest cities — but some have made it out to study abroad.” -
Parenting and education
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Chinese philosophy
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Fashion and ethnicity
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