How To Live Better Tiếng Việt

This book is written about mainland China. Where it says national, domestic or the state, it means China, not your country.

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A stranger is in trouble on the road: walk away, or stop

This is the long version of Section 13, item 2 (when an older person falls or someone is down, do not rush to lift them). The book sorts beneficiaries into four tiers. The sorting standard is how likely it is that the benefit will come back to you later. A stranger is the lowest tier. It is unlikely the other person will repay you, and you do not know who they are. So this piece does not urge you to do anything. It lists in full the cost of each of the three paths, and you choose.

This piece gives no probability. Every layer of cost below is real, and each has a provision you can look up. But there is no published statistic for "out of a hundred people who help, how many really get into trouble". The book's rule is that if a number is not certain, it is better not to write it. So do not read "seven layers are listed here" as "all seven will fall on you".

Three paths

Walk awayStop but do not touchStop and help to the end
LawfulnessLawful. An ordinary person has no duty to rescue a stranger, and the Criminal Law has no offence of "saw it and did not help". This is China. Countries such as Germany are different, see belowLawfulLawful
Time0A few minutes. Calling 120 leaves your numberHalf a day at least, and you may have to follow to the hospital
Chance of being sought out afterwardsLowestYou are the one who left a numberHighest
What the other person gains0The ambulance comes soonerThe most

Costs that may arise after you stop, from light to heavy

1. Call-backs and questioning. When you call 120 or 110, your number is recorded. The other side may call you back to confirm exactly where it is. Afterwards you may also be asked to come in for questioning once. In a criminal case, if the person who reported it does not want their name made public, the authority handling the case must keep it confidential (Criminal Procedure Law, Article 111). There is no such confidentiality provision for calling 120.

2. Being found by the injured person's family. If the vehicle that caused the harm cannot be found on camera, the easiest person for the family to find is you. You left your number, and you were at the scene. They may phone to press you, or come to your door.

3. Being sued in court. Whoever says you hit the person must produce the evidence. If they cannot, they bear the consequence themselves (Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law, Article 90). But this provision governs only how the case is finally decided. It does not govern whether you get dragged in. A case under the ordinary procedure must be closed at first instance within 6 months, and in special cases it can be extended by another 6 months. Under the summary procedure it is 3 months (Civil Procedure Law, Articles 152 and 164). Even if you win cleanly, the other side can be made to pay only three things: the case acceptance fee, the application fee, and the travel and lost-work costs of witnesses and appraisers who appear in court (Measures on the Payment of Litigation Costs, Articles 6 and 29). The money you pay your own lawyer is not among these three. You bear it yourself.

4. Trouble brought to your workplace. If someone comes to make trouble at your workplace, you can call the police. For disturbing the order of an enterprise or public institution so that work cannot proceed normally, the police give a warning or a fine of up to 500 yuan. In more serious cases, detention of 5 to 10 days, plus a fine of up to 1,000 yuan. If a group came together to make trouble, the ringleader is detained for 10 to 15 days (Public Security Administration Punishments Law, Article 26, item 1). For repeated harassment, pestering or stalking that stops you from living a normal life, the penalty is under Article 50, item 5. With the approval of the head of the public security organ, the person can also be ordered not to contact you for a set period. If the company dismisses you because of this matter, that is generally an unlawful termination of the labor contract, and the compensation is 2N (Section 19, item 6). But whether you call the police or go to labor arbitration, you have to run back and forth yourself. And the time during which you lose the job first is not made up because you later get 2N.

5. Being filmed and posted online. You may not be able to stop others from filming. Nobody may make, use or publicly release another person's portrait without that person's consent (Civil Code, Article 1019). But there is one exception: making, using or publicly releasing a portrait "unavoidably, in order to carry out news reporting" is reasonable use and is not an infringement (Article 1020, item 2). A reporter filming for a news report falls under this exception. What you can do is decline an interview, stay out of the shot, and not speak in front of the camera. Whether you agree is for you to decide. Nobody can agree on your behalf.

6. The video is passed around, and then you are abused. Once a video spreads, the comment section is no longer under your control. The measures you can take yourself are written in the Provisions on Governing Online Violence Information (in force from 1 August 2024). Platforms must give you these protective settings: block strangers or a particular person, and limit who can see your information. You can also forbid others from reposting or commenting, accept private messages only from friends, or accept private messages from nobody (Article 23). Platforms must provide a one-tap evidence function that fixes the abusive content in place (Article 25). Platforms must set up a dedicated quick complaint and reporting entry in a prominent position (Article 26). When a platform finds something suspected of being illegal or criminal, it must promptly report to the public security organ and provide the leads (Article 15). For how to keep evidence and call the police yourself, see Section 8, item 37 (when you are attacked online, turn on protection first and fix the evidence first).

7. When you cannot bear it. The first six layers can be met with provisions. The seventh cannot. There is no reliable domestic data to cite on how much being besieged for a long time affects mood. This book gives no number, only one way out: the psychological support hotline 12356, see Section 1, item 25.

Three cases in which "walk away" is no longer free

If you decide to stop, the least troublesome way

  1. Do not move or lift the person. There is no second answer to this. The reason is medical: forcing the person up may make a brain bleed worse, and may make a spinal injury worse. Legally there is nothing to worry about: harm caused in the course of rescue is already exempted by Article 184 of the Civil Code.
  2. Keep a little distance and call out to the person, and see whether they are breathing normally. If there is no response and no normal breathing, press hard on the chest, see Section 13, item 1. If they are breathing normally, stay where you are and call 120, and state the location clearly.
  3. Pull in a passer-by, and switch on your phone to record video at the same time. Having a witness and a recording is worth more than arguing afterwards.
  4. Do not lift the person into a vehicle by yourself, and do not pay out of your own pocket to take the person to a hospital. This step costs the most money, and is the hardest to close out afterwards.
  5. If you were hurt while helping, or you spent money, and you want that money back, see Section 13, item 39 (what to do if you were hurt or spent money while helping).

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