Dying toddler ignored in China – but are we any better?

Tuesday 25th October 2011, 12:13AM BST.

A photograph of murdered two-year-old James Bulger lies beside the hundreds of flowers at the spot where his body was found in Walton, Liverpool.

 

We are appalled by those terrible bystanders in the Chinese city of Foshan who saw a two-year-old girl knocked over in the road but did nothing, writes Peter Rhodes.

Video footage shows Wang Yue lying helpless as more than a dozen passers-by ignore her. She is run over again and dies later of her injuries.

The moral, according to various self-righteous pundits, is that China is a land obsessed with money where no-one care about anyone else any more.

Whereas in Britain, what exactly?

Over the years I have seen three life-threatening crises where the Great British Public gawped and passed by (in one case driving around the helpless, bleeding scooter rider) and did damn-all to help.

You think Brits would take more attention of a two-year-old? Then you clearly never heard the evidence at the 1993 James Bulger murder trial. We heard how dozens of adults saw two lads dragging a toddler off to his death – and no-one did a thing.

City of Foshan – twinned with your town, my town, any town.