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Get Flash Player Yet another negative story out of China has gone viral and made headlines, doing no good to China's image. Once again it concerns an elderly person allegedly making accusations against someone who claims to have gone to his aid. According to news reports, Wu, a lowly rubbish collector, was on his motorcycle when he saw an old man lying in the road. Wu rushed to the man's his aid, got into a quarrel, and then with the help of a local resident, took him to the hospital and paid his medical bills. For his trouble, the old man's family turned on him and accused him of causing the old man's injuries. They demanded he pay compensation. What proof was offered by the old man's family? His eldest daughter said that if Wu "hadn't hit my father with his motorbike, why would he be so kind and take my dad to the hospital and pay for his medical expenses". Sadly judges have used the same logic to convict well-meaning good Samaritans in the past. In the end Wu killed himself. His wife said he did so to prove his innocence. While we may never know the real story, it's clear that this incident, only one in a long line of similar ones in which either a good Samaritan is ordered to pay compensation or in which a crowd of people gather around a person in distress, doing nothing more than perhaps gawking or snapping pictures to post on WeChat, is sullying China's image. But what would you do? I know that because of such incidents, as much as I wanted to help, I would sadly refrain from doing so. | 
