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Saturday 20 December 2008
Shanghai Man Jailed for Abandoning Mother
A Shanghai man who refused to care for his ailing 83-year-old mother and abandoned her in a public city square has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, a newspaper and court official said Friday.
SHANGHAI, China - A Shanghai man who refused to care for his ailing 83-year-old mother and abandoned her in a public city square has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, a newspaper and court official said Friday.
Zhabei District People’s Court sentenced 54-year-old Wang Kouma on Thursday after finding him guilty of leaving his mother at the People’s Square in Shanghai in October 2007, said an official at the Zhabei District People’s Court.
The official refused to give his name as is customary among Chinese bureaucrats and he declined to comment further.
The case highlights the difficulty developing China has in caring for its aging population. Three decades of market reforms have accelerated the breakup of the traditional extended family in China, and there are few affordable alternatives, such as retirement or care homes, for the elderly or others unable to live on their own.
More than a fifth of Shanghai’s population is aged 60 and older.
“In an aging society, a better system must be set up to care for the elderly,” the state-run newspaper China Daily quoted Zhang Jiehai, a sociologist with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as saying. “I expect there to be more cases like this in the future.”
Under Chinese law, anyone who fails in his or her duty to support an aged, minor or sick family member unable to live independently can be sentenced to a prison term of up to five years.
The China Daily report said Wang was one of seven siblings, none of whom were willing to take their mother in. But Wang took 270,000 yuan (nearly $40,000) in money paid to his mother for housing relocation and the court thus held him responsible for looking after her.
The report did not explain the mother’s condition, but said she died of a heart attack in January this year.
After police found Wang’s mother, Teng Jindi, in People’s Square, a bustling downtown plaza, her local neighborhood committee found her a hostel to stay in. Wang and his four brothers and two sisters all refused appeals from the neighborhood committee to look after her or even to visit her, the report said.
Neighbourhood committees often comprise elder residents who look after a particular block or street and sometimes mediate in family disputes.
The report said Wang told the court that his mother disappeared when he left her to buy cigarettes and he had not learned from the neighbourhood committee where she was.
Police accused Wang of telling Teng to ask the government for a place to live, the report said.
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Shanghai Man Jailed for Abandoning Mother
AP
19 December 2008
SHANGHAI, China - A Shanghai man who refused to care for his ailing 83-year-old mother and abandoned her in a public city square has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, a newspaper and court official said Friday.
Zhabei District People’s Court sentenced 54-year-old Wang Kouma on Thursday after finding him guilty of leaving his mother at the People’s Square in Shanghai in October 2007, said an official at the Zhabei District People’s Court.
The official refused to give his name as is customary among Chinese bureaucrats and he declined to comment further.
The case highlights the difficulty developing China has in caring for its aging population. Three decades of market reforms have accelerated the breakup of the traditional extended family in China, and there are few affordable alternatives, such as retirement or care homes, for the elderly or others unable to live on their own.
More than a fifth of Shanghai’s population is aged 60 and older.
“In an aging society, a better system must be set up to care for the elderly,” the state-run newspaper China Daily quoted Zhang Jiehai, a sociologist with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as saying. “I expect there to be more cases like this in the future.”
Under Chinese law, anyone who fails in his or her duty to support an aged, minor or sick family member unable to live independently can be sentenced to a prison term of up to five years.
The China Daily report said Wang was one of seven siblings, none of whom were willing to take their mother in. But Wang took 270,000 yuan (nearly $40,000) in money paid to his mother for housing relocation and the court thus held him responsible for looking after her.
The report did not explain the mother’s condition, but said she died of a heart attack in January this year.
After police found Wang’s mother, Teng Jindi, in People’s Square, a bustling downtown plaza, her local neighborhood committee found her a hostel to stay in. Wang and his four brothers and two sisters all refused appeals from the neighborhood committee to look after her or even to visit her, the report said.
Neighbourhood committees often comprise elder residents who look after a particular block or street and sometimes mediate in family disputes.
The report said Wang told the court that his mother disappeared when he left her to buy cigarettes and he had not learned from the neighbourhood committee where she was.
Police accused Wang of telling Teng to ask the government for a place to live, the report said.
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