Police Chief Loses Job Thanks to Cayman Driving, Road-raging Wife
In entertaining news of the week, a Chinese cop has been fired after his wife was caught on camera having a serious case of road rage.
The Washington Post is a news outlet generally associated with serious, hard-hitting political journalism. However, WaPo recently published a humorous piece on the road-raging wife of a small-town police chief. Until recently Tong Xiaohua was the head of the Sichuan police station in the Yubei district of Chongqing, a small city of around 40,000 people in Southwestern China. Unfortunately for Xiaohua, he was ousted after of his wife’s ill tempered behavior was caught on camera.
In a video posted to People’s Daily, China’s YouTube channel, Li Yue appears to be driving a Guards Red 718 Cayman. When she attempts an illegal U-turn on a pedestrian crossway she is thwarted by the driver of a Chery, a cheap Chinese SUV, according to the Washington Post. She stomps over to the driver where the two engage in an argument that quickly escalates to a slapping fit, causing Yue’s wide-brimmed hat to fly off. Making matters worse is the fact that the video went viral after it was shared on a popular streaming website.
The viral video led to a two-week investigation into his wife’s bad behavior. Tong was ultimately dismissed from his position due to a “disciplinary violation.” Other videos of his wife soon emerged in which she bragged about speeding, running lights and generally avoiding any type of responsibility that lesser connected individuals would suffer from. Â According to the Post’s reporting, shortly after the incident “Porsche Woman” was the most-searched phrase on the Chinese search engine Baidu and for four days variations of the #femalePorschedriver hashtag started trending on Weibo, which is China’s version of Twitter. Soon memes of Li and her flashy red Cayman, ostentatious had and sunglasses were all over social media.
Yue was cited $28 for attempting a U-turn on a pedestrian crossing. Adding insult to injury she was also fined an additional $7 for wearing clothes that the police considered unsafe for driving. We’ll assume they were referring to those hilariously tall and unstable spike heels she had on when she exited her Porsche. The fallout though has been far worse than a couple of traffic offenses and the police chief losing his job. Police are now investigating the couple for corruption, which has become under increased scrutiny since Xi Jinping became China’s ruler in 2012.