An impoverished chef from Nanjing, Jiangsu province, may end up paying for clipping a Rolls Phantom's bumper.
The widening income gap in China can hardly be better demonstrated than in the case of Chef Liu, who looked likely to spend the rest of his life paying for damage to a 12 million yuan ($1.9m) Rolls Royce Phantom. The accident occurred on February 14th near the Lukou International Airport in Nanjing, where Liu drove his 70,000 yuan ($11,115) Ling Yue sedan into the stationary Rolls which was parked at the side of the road.
Although Liu's car only clipped the luxury British-made car, taking off part of the fender and the iconic Flying Lady hood ornament, the car is so expensive and custom built that the repairs could cost upward of one million yuan. Liu's chef's salary earns him a meagre 2,000 yuan ($318) per month and, even after selling everything he owns, it would still take over 41 years to repay the damage.
Liu's misfortune made him an online sensation, trending fourth most popular item on Baidu, China's largest search engine. Ironically, this attention has lead to public outcry and the sympathy of fellow Chinese netizens, which has turned the spotlight on the vehicle's owner and put him under pressure to drop the charges.
According to Sina, the Rolls Royce's owner - who uses the car to shuttle corporate clients to and from the airport - has agreed to take some of the financial burden off the young man, although the exact details of the settlement are yet to be released.