Truth, Justice, and the Chinese Way of Life

March 12, 2004

There's a serial murderer at large in our city - unless he's slipped back into his neighboring home province, or fled the country, or killed himself. Everybody has a theory and nobody knows.

What's known for sure is that in mid February, four Yunnan University college seniors were beaten to death with what the newspapers refer to obliquely as, "a blunt metal object." Or, in the words of insiders, an axe. The official reports are sketchy but with a story this juicy there is no end to the rumors and hearsay.

One thing that everyone seems to agree on is the identity of the killer. Ma Jiajue was friends with all of the victims, roommates with one of them, and disappeared at the same time as the four who were found dead. A few days after the murders, but before the bodies were found, somebody emptied out the bank account of one of the victims, and that person reportedly looked a lot like Ma Jiajue. Other than that nobody has seen very much of him.

It's not for lack of trying. By now there's not a person in Kunming who doesn't know what Ma Jiajue looks like. The provincial government has made an official "wanted" poster with Ma's college ID photo, and plastered copies of it all over the city. Another poster, illustrated with snapshots perhaps recovered from his dead roomates, shows Ma striking martial arts poses, shirtless and fierce. Photos that were once passed among friends now take on sinister overtones; every smile looks like a sneer, a proud stance appears predatory, a good physique brings on thoughts of a "blunt metal object" crushing skulls.

Producing Ma Jiajue posters has become something like a folk art, as new variations appear every day. The stock of images is limited, but this has not stopped people from rearranging and resizing them, posting multiple photocopies on lampposts, storefronts, and residential entry gates. The repetition looks like an Andy Warhol exhibition. Right now, Ma Jiajue is the best known man in Yunnan. If the Rolling Stones and the reunited Beatles were coming to town, complete with a revived John Lennon and George Harrison, the publicity could not be greater. I don't think the Second Coming would get this much attention.

A 150,000 yuan reward for Ma Jiajue's capture was announced, which was later raised to 200,000 and now 400,000 yuan. The police have made him Public Enemy Number One and apprehending him is their primary objective. The national government is supporting the manhunt in our distant province, sending soldiers into the forests surrounding our city, looking for hideouts. Ma Jiajue was born and raised in the countryside and, like Eric Rudolph, he is presumed to be capable of hiding and living off of the land indefinitely. The bogeyman is on the loose.

This story has captured people's imagination like nothing else. People get killed in China all the time - two drunks got in a knife fight and one died right in our neighborhood - but nobody gets too excited. There was a brief story a few months back about villagers killing their neighbors with rat poison. And during our last stay in China, a disgruntled worker was believed to be behind an apartment house explosion that killed dozens of people. So four deaths alone are not enough to account for the interest.

What strikes people, I think, is the sudden brutality of crime in a location that, to many people, seems like a sanctuary. Being a college student in China is still a rare privilege, the first step on a path to a lifetime of success and happiness. It is a world apart from the labor and the dangers of ordinary peasant life, and an unexpected place to face death.

I don't know how much attention the story is getting outside of our province. As far as I can tell, the Ma Jiajue murders have not been reported on the English-language national CCTV news broadcast. I'd like to think that this is because the story is too sensational, with too few solid facts, but judging by what does go on the air, that can't be the case.

For example, CCTV news recently reported that Osama bin Laden was surrounded on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. A few days later they interrupted broadcasting to announce that he was captured. The US will deny this because George Bush is waiting to release the news at a time that will offer him the best advantage for reelection.

We have also heard that Saddam Hussein has lymph gland cancer, with fewer than two years to live. His much-publicized capture was a staged event; Hussein had been taken captive days earlier and was drugged by the Americans for the filming, making him appear docile and pathetic.

Every news agency has a bias. Stories get edited, facts get left out, events get intrepreted. Ma Jiajue is shown as a homicidal monster, a local terrorist who may strike again anywhere, at any time. In emergency safety meetings, we are told to lock our doors and be wary of strangers, but it's not clear to me that we are in danger. Officials don't seem to think that why Ma Jiajue killed four people is relevant.

Friends closer to the story have helped to fill in the picture. They tell us that in the poor village where he was raised, Ma Jiajue was the smartest boy around. He became a local hero, attracting the praise of school authorities and the attention of local government officials. With their help, he got accepted at the best university in the region. His future looked bright.

But when he want off to the big city, he was no longer special. Other students were smarter, got better grades, were more popular. Ma Jiajue was an awkward outsider, a laboring peasant in the eyes of his peers, with coarse, thick features. He became discouraged and bitter, jealous of his roommates and their girlfriends.

One night, Ma Jiajue's roommate came home late after a romantic Valentine's Day date. Ma and his roommate fought, and in a rage, Ma beat and killed him with an axe. As he tried to conceal his deeds, a friend came by unexpectedly and discovered the body. Ma killed him too, and then went to the friend's room to kill his two roommates, hoping to silence anyone who might be able to connect him with the crime.

If this is true, Ma Jiajue is no less guilty, still a murderer needing to be captured and punished. But he is also someone that I can understand, a confused boy getting deeper and deeper into trouble the more he tries to protect himself. Under the wrong circumstances, I might do something equally disastrous, equally shortsighted.

On a smaller scale, Ma Jiajue has become Yunnan's Osama bin Laden, the terrorist exploiting our modern vulnerabilities. Raised in poverty, exposed to a better life, he could not adjust, and struck out against those who had more than him. His victims did nothing to deserve their fate. Having assaulted the civilized world, he has retreated to the traditional life of his family, a pariah in the wilderness, hoping forever to evade capture.

Sooner or later, Ma and bin Laden will be found. The outrage and the dedication of resources will see to that. Both of them will almost certainly die for their crimes. But part of me will always be wondering if I heard the whole story, and if their deaths served any purpose other than allowing us to stop asking questions, and to file away their crimes as solved.