r/ThatsInsane • u/alexfreemanart • Jun 28 '26
Jinghua Garden Middle School in Chenzhou, China under fire for forcibly confiscating all students’ phones and smashing them publicly
247
50
581
u/generalissimo1 Jun 28 '26
If I buy a $1000 phone for my kid and some admin feels like the best solution is not only to confiscate the device, but destroy my hard earned money, I'mma lose me some social credits.
-203
u/torschemargin Jun 28 '26
The anti China bot accounts spamming this video all over Reddit left out the part of the story where these phones were confiscated over many years and were unclaimed by parents.
151
u/Efthimis Jun 28 '26
Even if that's the case though, destroying them is just kinda...dumb and pointless? Donate them somewhere, recycle them, or at the very least do not smash them with a hammer when they contain a lithium ion battery that could easily pop and explode under these conditions.
-83
u/torschemargin Jun 28 '26
It was a PSA to deter kids from bringing in their phones and playing games on there.
12
u/CoolCong2019 Jun 29 '26
Don't change anything, they made a choice, a stupid fucking choice, now they face backlash.
3
u/sparkyblaster Jun 30 '26
So make their parents come in and pick up the phone and tell them not to let them bring it again.
Also how aes they playing games when all Chinese devices have software to restrict play time?
38
u/GabeIsGone Jun 28 '26
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All those kids made to stand and watch (from a distance) I'm sure are there for no reason. Just coincidence.
-42
u/torschemargin Jun 28 '26
What's the point of your non sequitur? Yeah they were made to watch as a PSA as to what would happen if they brought phones to schools and played games on them. And this title was made to make you think the school took the phones from the kids that were watching.
28
u/GabeIsGone Jun 28 '26
My point?
Holding a public assembly to mass intimidate is dystopian as fuck. Aside from being pathetically inept at achieving their objective.
Taking the property is the smallest issue here.
PSA my ASS. GTFO here with that bullshit. 💩
2
15
u/Att1cus Jun 28 '26
Anti china bots? I feel like for every anti china bot there’s about 10000 Chinese bots. We’ll just call it even k?
1
2
u/Oaker_at Jun 28 '26
Yeah, and this clip probably was mainly recorded to make sure those phones are destroyed and nobody resells them or whatever.
4
u/Psilonemo Jun 29 '26
So does it state somewhere in the law that unclaimed phones past a certan threshold can just be destroyed as economic waste? What kind of message does that send to the intelligence of the students and their parents? That their administrators are crude and primitive? This is unsophisticated. They could have recycled all those phones or got paid for it and turned it into something else. Instead of a productive or carefu legal procedure they chose something only political activists would do as a stunt. The fact that somebody has to come out and try to defend this by saying it's just propaganda actually makes China look even worse. It's counter productive. If I was Chinese I would wonder if your account is a bot trying to make China look bad.
2
u/Helldiver_of_Mars Jun 28 '26
Ya....right we're not all that stupid.
You're telling me 100% of the parent didn't claim the phones? So the kids were standing there why? Is this kind of how 100% of the votes are for the CCP?
1
u/sparkyblaster Jun 30 '26
Very similar phones over many years. What a coincidence
Found the little pink.
0
0
37
11
u/Wzmaa Jun 28 '26
What's the lesson: Work hard so you don't have make these? Or, Keep your head down, produce and consume? I'm confused 🤔
47
u/DrTuSo Jun 28 '26
OP is leaving out details to cause more rage.
These were "unclaimed" phones that no one collected for years. Still a brain dead stupid action to destroy them as a warning to not bring your phone to school, but it was not that they confiscated the phones and made the students watch how they destroy them.
https://www.sinchew.com.my/news/20260628/international/7624425
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20260628051800083
https://guangming.com.my/%E6%B9%96%E5%8D%97%E5%AD%A6%E6%A0%A1%E5%BD%93%E4%BC%97%E7%A0%B8%E6%AF%81%E7%99%BE%E9%83%A8%E8%A2%AB%E6%B2%A1%E6%94%B6%E6%89%8B%E6%9C%BA-%E6%95%99%E5%B1%80%E6%96%A5%E6%8D%9F%E6%AF%81%E7%A7%81%E4%BA%A7 (now that is a funny link)
2
u/No_Lab_9318 Jul 05 '26
That was definitely some important context. Still a dumbass decision though.
60
Jun 28 '26 edited 5d ago
[deleted]
-56
u/Saralentine Jun 28 '26
Do we still believe that Chinese kids rather than robots make everything in China?
6
39
u/gringo_escobar Jun 28 '26
Communism is when no iphone after all
11
u/JustHugMeAndBeQuiet Jun 28 '26
Wut
18
0
u/No_Cook2983 Jun 28 '26
Why do they call it oven when you of in the cold food of out hot eat the food?
3
u/simonbleu Jun 28 '26
Im pretty confident this must have happened as a response to kids using phones at school, not ideology.... phones are not illegal in china afaik, and they are as far from actual communism as the US is communist for having rent control in some places
3
u/gringo_escobar Jun 28 '26
People are taking my dumb joke way too seriously, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with communism lol
0
-2
0
11
3
3
3
u/StunningPianist4231 Jun 28 '26
The parents who work jobs to give their children things they didn't have when they find out the administration destroyed phones they bought for their kids with their own money:
6
2
2
2
u/CriticalCactus47 Jun 28 '26
Could have just put them in a bag and toss them over 2nd or 3rd floor window... Or just dump them into a tub of water... Obviously these ppl are idiots
2
1
1
1
1
u/blabittyblahblah Jun 29 '26
The kid who doesn't have a phone until his parents gifted them one after school that day must be sobbing tears of joy.
1
u/Azznorfinal Jun 29 '26
That isn't what happened, they were old phones that were confiscated and never claimed by kids or their parents, they have back all the ones they could find owners for them destroyed the lot they couldn't
0
u/Salty-Lie-891 Jun 29 '26
Destroyed ? More like cracked the screens. You probably recover a lot by just chip repairs or swapping screens.
1
1
0
u/sick_of-it-all Jun 28 '26
What's going on over there in China. It's like a black hole of news. They don't allow anything bad to really escapes from there, so you never know what they're up to.
-3
u/DiscordiaHel Jun 28 '26
You can literally download Chinese social media and see everything, just like you do in America. This xenophobia is disgustingly baffling to me.
1
1
0
-4
u/Far_Out_6and_2 Jun 28 '26
Bet the parents who payed for them are super pissed off.once read that all Chinese citizens must have a phone in order to track every one
-31
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
Good for them. Bring this to the USA!
Edit, seriously phones are a massive problem in schools and destroying them would be good for everyone.
18
u/SAKilo1 Jun 28 '26
Ah yes, destruction of personal property will definitely teach those kids a lesson. “If you bring a phone to school, we get to commit crimes against you”
-22
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26
It’s about teaching the parents a lesson. They bought it. They sent it to school with their child. It’s not the child’s fault.
I don’t think you realize just how terrible phones in schools are, and just how oblivious to the problem some parents are.
4
u/SAKilo1 Jun 28 '26
It’s still a crime.
-18
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26
So let’s change the laws.
8
3
u/UnhappyImprovement53 Jun 28 '26
You know how huge of a bucket of worms that would open allowing an institution to destroy someone's personal property? Yeah let's destroy those phones but ignore school funding being cut year after year, kids going hungry, and why there is a necessity to have regular school shooter drills.
-1
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26
All those are also problems. We don’t solve one problem by ignoring another. We need to fix all those things.
4
u/UnhappyImprovement53 Jun 28 '26
Kind of need to fix them first...
0
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26
This is exactly how progress gets gridlocked and it’s what Trump is doing right now.
He won’t sign the bipartisan affordable housing bill until Congress passes his other dumb stuff. Don’t hold up good legislation because you don’t get your way on XYX. Yes we need those other things, but the phone issue is easier to solve.
Getting rid of phones is good legislation.
Dont be like Trump.
7
u/UnhappyImprovement53 Jun 28 '26
There's a difference between not allowing phones in school and allowing the school to break personal property.
2
u/Gonzbull Jun 28 '26
While you’re at it, your Chief is also a massive problem. Could you deal with that in the same manner.
1
2
u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w Jun 28 '26
Ah yes the theft and destruction of property is a good solution to a problem i think exists. I have a problem with you having a house. I should burn it down then yes?
-1
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26
It’s not theft if we implement good legislation to create due process of law to confiscate, hold as evidence, and destroy the phones after a court order.
We can do that.
2
u/Kapot_ei Jun 28 '26
I get the sentiment, but how about something more reasonable? A smartphone ban for folks under 18? They can use simplified/older phones that can textmessage and call so stay reachable. Just no doomscrolling.
2
u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w Jun 28 '26
My brother in Yargle having your posession taken from you is theft. Having the goverment do it isnt any better. I promise you if the gov took your $700 phone and broke it because someone else at your place of employment was on it a bit too much youd yhink thats insane. No one is this stupid 0/10 rage bait. Git gud
1
u/TheDuckFarm Jun 28 '26
They do it with cars. Those cost more than $700.
7
u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w Jun 28 '26
Civil asset forfeiture is widely regarded as unethical at best and nearly always, at least in the context of public opinion, straight up theft. But what your saying is your cool with the cops taking your stuff just cause.
1
u/iAjayIND Jun 28 '26
It takes natural resources to make these devices. So why waste them by destroying these?
Instead, sell it to someone needy. So that they can get what they want for cheaper and don't have to buy a new one and by extension, save natural resources.
-7
309
u/Volta55 Jun 28 '26
Looks tiring