Spraying residential buildings causes public outrage and challenges the concept of rule of law 

——On the Indifferentiated Law Enforcement of the Myanmar North Electricity Fraud Case 

A netizen recently left a message to the Secretary of the Lianyuan Municipal Party Committee in Hunan Province, questioning whether the families of the stranded Burmese people were guilty, and attached a picture of the exterior wall of the house being painted with the words "home of personnel involved in electricity fraud dens". Subsequently, the government of Qixing Street Town in Lianyuan City replied that they hoped that the family would understand the inconvenience caused to them and requested that the family continue to cooperate with the persuasion work.

As a parent, I have been raising my son through hard work, but he has been working outside for five years and has not returned home. What has happened that has made my parents feel cold about him? That's why they say 'when he no longer exists'. Behind this sentence, more is the pain and despair of a family, as well as the hope for returning to a normal state of life. At this point, when the local government painted and sprayed the words "home of personnel involved in electricity fraud dens" on personal housing, it undoubtedly prevented the family from returning to normal life, causing the family to once again fall into deeper pain. The local government's approach and response have also attracted discussions online.

Indeed, relying solely on comments and responses from government websites is not enough to restore the original appearance of the incident. But based on the website's questions and answers, we can restore some basic information, as follows. 

Based on the comments from netizens, the following valid information can be extracted: 

1. The netizen's son has been working outside for five years and has not returned home.

2. The netizen regarded the son as non-existent.

3. The government has repeatedly taken disharmonious measures such as announcing, listing, and spraying words all over the house in the netizen's home. 

4. The government did not inform the netizen of the legal basis for the above actions. 

5. Netizens are not aware of whether there is evidence to prove that their son is a fraud criminal. 

6. Netizens are not clear about whether they have been punished for their son's illegal behavior. 

According to the response from the local government, the following content can be extracted: 

1. The son of a netizen is a member of a North Myanmar fraud shelter reported by the Ministry of Public Security

2. The son of the netizen has not been advised to return at present.

3. Higher authorities require local governments to take effective measures to persuade their children to return to the country 

4. If his son is still not persuaded to return, he will face other effective measures, such as being cancelled. 

5. The local government is aware that this effective measure will cause inconvenience to the netizen. 

6. The local government requests the netizen to strongly cooperate with the persuasion work for his son to return and ensure that his son returns home as soon as possible.

Extracting the basic information extracted from the previous text can cause confusion among the public regarding the legality, proportionality, and appropriateness of this behavior. 

1、 The first issue is the legality of the relevant actions taken by the local government.

One of the legitimacy issues is related to the protection of private rights. British Prime Minister William Pi once said, "My thatched cottage is my castle, where wind can enter, rain can enter, but the king cannot enter. The courtyard wall of the family member naturally belongs to the private property of the citizen, and any measures taken by law enforcement personnel against any private property of the citizen should show the citizen the basis for exercising the right. This is also in line with the fundamental principle of the sanctity of private rights upheld by the Civil Code. However, we do not know how the local government entered the netizen's home and carried out behaviors such as spraying words all over the house.

The second issue of legality is related to personality protection. The local government has sprayed the text "Home of Personnel Involved in Electrical Fraud dens" on the courtyard wall of netizens' homes. This text has a clear tendency towards stigmatization and labeling, which can lower the social evaluation of family members and even damage their personality and reputation. However, in the Civil Code, personality rights are independently codified, reflecting the intention of the legislature to vigorously protect citizens' personality rights, which goes against the process of rule of law.

The third legal issue involves legal and ethical issues. The fundamental principle of modern law is that everyone should bear the adverse consequences of their improper behavior, and the involvement of family members in punishment in this case undoubtedly challenges the basic concept of modern law. 

2、 The second issue is whether the behavior conforms to the principle of proportionality.

According to the basic definition, the principle of proportionality refers to the principle that "when implementing administrative actions, administrative agencies should consider the reality of the target and the choice of appropriate means, ensuring a balance between public interests and the rights and interests of administrative counterparties. If achieving administrative goals may cause some adverse impact on the rights and interests of administrative counterparties, such adverse effects should be limited to the smallest possible range, and the two should be kept in an appropriate proportion. The three secondary principles include the principle of appropriateness, the principle of necessity, and the principle of balance.

In terms of development, in this incident, the goal of the local government's actions was to persuade netizens' sons to return to the country, but the method adopted was to spray the text "Home of Electrical Fraud Cell Personnel" on the courtyard wall of netizens' homes. From the perspective of the effectiveness of this method, it can be seen that in the situation where relatives have been waiting for five years without success, simply "stigmatizing" their relatives cannot have a significant effect on persuading their returning netizen son to return to China. When this means neither significantly contributes to achieving the goal nor has a more negative implementation effect, it is urgent to question whether this behavior is appropriate.

3、 Finally, it is worth mentioning the plight of personnel involved in electricity fraud in northern Myanmar.

North Myanmar, known as the fraud circle of Jerusalem. Two reporters from Henan Radio and Television City Channel conducted undercover investigations to expose criminal activities such as illegal immigration and telecommunications fraud in Myanmar, risking their lives. The broadcast of the special films "Border Snake Shadow" and "Return from North Myanmar" produced by two journalists has attracted the attention of the fraud group, which is willing to release six people for free on the condition that the videos are taken off the shelves. From this, we can glimpse the plight of people involved in electricity fraud in northern Myanmar. In this incident, we have no way of knowing whether the son of the netizen voluntarily stayed in northern Myanmar or was detained and unable to escape.

The public understands that case handling agencies sacrifice some individual interests when safeguarding the interests of the whole society, and the difficulties of evidence collection, investigation, and law enforcement also plague relevant case handling agencies. Hunan is not the only province where grassroots authorities have implemented such "indiscriminate nuclear strike" law enforcement measures under "superior instructions". Many places have introduced "ten unifications" measures, as shown in the following figure.

In fact, this more clearly demonstrates that in the process of cracking down on illegal and criminal activities in northern Myanmar, China's law enforcement forces are beyond their reach. Therefore, it is necessary for us to seek more scientific law enforcement models. From the perspective of social governance, compared to the current "indiscriminate" law enforcement that affects the families of suspects, and following the contributions made by the media, it seems that in the future, the case handling agencies will be able to expand education and publicity, continuously enhance negotiations with northern Myanmar, and have a more immediate effect.