How were you unlucky enough to be born in China?

谁叫你不幸生在中国? (shéi jiào nǐ bú xìng shēng zài zhōng guó): How were you so unfortunate as to be born in China?

This is a statement made by He Zuoma, a 78 year-old professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a heated exchange with a reporter. The reporter asked about deaths in coal mines and alleged that more than one hundred people die daily in China’s coal mines. He Zuoma countered that a much greater number died in car accidents. When pressed by the reporter as to whether the coal mine deaths were the result of government corruption or were otherwise avoidable, Mr. He denied this and claimed instead that the deaths were simply the unavoidable byproducts of poverty. He then asked, “How were you so unfortunate as to be born in China?” and then added, “In the process of development some sacrifices are unavoidable.”

Mr. He’s comments were seen to symbolize the sort of emotional detachment with which the government single-mindedly pursues its overarching goal of development at all costs. His comments also became a critique against the government’s mantra of “scientific development.”