residents could be evicted for spitting in public

[Amby 490]

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese people who live in government-sponsored housing in a prosperous southern province may be evicted if caught repeatedly spitting in public, according to a draft plan.

The plan, carried on the Guangzhou Land and House Management Bureau's website (www.laho.gov.cn), also includes littering, making too much noise and gambling among more than 20 other "misdeeds" that would lead to eviction, based on a point system.

Spitting once in the community carries a three point penalty, littering five, dropping things from upper stories seven and not paying the rent for three consecutive months carries the maximum of 20 points, the plan said.

People in such housing will be forced to move out if they rack up a total of 20 points.

Spitting in public is common in China, despite repeated government campaigns to wipe it out as a health menace.

The bureau's website said it had "borrowed ideas from the advanced experience of Hong Kong on public housing management."

But the idea has upset China's increasingly vocal online community.

Some web users have criticized the plan as "discrimination against the poor," saying Hong Kong was a much fairer and more modern city than Guangzhou, where people could not be expected to live up to such high standards.

"What if a rich person did all these things?" one web user said on popular portal sina.com.cn..

Guangzhou is the capital of the country's export-oriented economic heartland province of Guangdong.

The bureau is now seeking public opinions on the draft.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6063Y520100107

[Nagishkaw 510]

Can't spit but maybe ok to butcher and skin cats and dogs while they are still alive?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Spitting once in the community carries a three point penalty, littering five, dropping things from upper stories seven and not paying the rent for three consecutive months carries the maximum of 20 points, the plan said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6063Y520100107

I remember seeing a public service commercial in Hong Kong showing someone pushing out their old A/C unit from a high-rise to get rid of it. It landed on someone. Apparently this was a common way to dispose of them.

[GabiandVi 34]

Yay!!! Finally! In a country with rampant and drug resistant TB, and where the sound of hoiking a giant cob reaches unbelievable volumes, it's time to put a stop to such behavior! During SARS they enforced fines against spitting, but they gave up as soon as the scare evaporated.

I got used to occasionally seeing human feces on sidewalks and smelling raw sewerage, but that lengthy and thunderous hoik raised my hackles to the end.