Bubble Tea Shop Closed for "Welcome First, Scan QR Code Later"? Official Report: Abuse of Authority

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It's not uncommon for shops to be closed down - some due to substandard product quality, others for disrupting market order. But have you ever imagined a shop being closed down for saying "welcome"? Without surveillance footage, it would be truly hard to imagine such an absurd event happening in reality these days.

The topic #MilkTeaShopClosedDownForSayingWelcomeFirst# has been heavily trending on social platforms, with 360 million views on Weibo alone! As of 2 PM on the 11th, the topic's total views reached a staggering 870 million, with 122,000 discussions!

On November 10th, at a milk tea shop in Daqing, Heilongjiang, a staff member said "welcome" to an entering "customer." Two seconds later, the "customer" asked about product prices. Instead of responding, the staff member asked them to scan a QR code first. This led to immediate criticism: "You said it too late. The first thing should have been asking to scan the code." The "customer" then revealed their identity as a market regulation bureau officer, after which two more people entered. One of them was carrying closure notices and, without giving the bewildered staff any time to react, declared that the milk tea shop had failed to implement epidemic prevention requirements properly by not asking customers to scan or verify codes. They then posted closure notices and ordered the shop to shut down.

According to Owl Video, from the moment the first man entered the shop to when he commandingly stated "closing today," only 48 seconds had passed. This "enforcement" process, lasting less than two minutes, cut off a shop's entire day's business. Such suddenness represents considerable trouble and loss for a milk tea shop.

On the afternoon of November 11th, Owl Video contacted the milk tea shop and learned that the shop had been unsealed. Staff members mentioned that when the closure notice was posted on the morning of the 10th, they were required to close for 24 hours. Since that time limit had passed, the shop resumed operations as scheduled.

Another merchant near the incident location told a reporter from Jimu News that their own shop had previously been closed down after a similar unannounced inspection. On one occasion, because their electronic thermometer ran out of battery, they were ordered to close for a day. The next day, she went to the Market Supervision Administration to submit an application, and only then did her shop resume operations. Besides the one-day closure, there were no other penalties such as fines.

"I also saw that video online, and it was indeed overly strict," the merchant stated. While they don't object to unannounced inspections, and admitted their own shop's closure was justified, this milk tea shop being closed simply for saying "welcome" first is truly unreasonable.

At 9 PM on November 11th, the official website of the Zhaozhou County People's Government issued a notice stating that Wang from the County Market Supervision Administration had apologized to the milk tea shop owner and obtained their forgiveness. The notice concluded that Wang and others had engaged in improper enforcement during their inspection process, with crude methods and harsh attitudes. They deliberately created difficulties by using the merchant's failure to immediately request QR code scanning as a pretext, abusing their authority under the guise of inspection, causing serious adverse social impact.

According to the notice, the County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision gave Wang a demerit record and recommended his transfer from the enforcement team. Staff members Jin and Zhao received criticism and education. Deputy Director Kang of the County Market Supervision Administration received a cautionary talk. The County Market Supervision Administration itself received a notice of criticism and was ordered to conduct a thorough self-examination.

Additionally, the notice stated that online rumors claiming "other staff members from the County Market Supervision Administration came to the milk tea shop, saying the incident was a misunderstanding and that the enforcement officer in the video was an impostor" were false information, verified after checking with the milk tea shop owner and store manager.

This incident has attracted significant online attention. Netizens commented: "As law enforcement officers, they didn't scan the code themselves first, violating the very laws they're supposed to enforce - that's an aggravated offense." Others gave examples: "'Son comes home from school: I'm hungry, Mom. Mom angrily says: You called me Mom too late, you should have called me Mom first, so no dinner for you,' 'What's the difference between this and being fired for stepping into the company with your left foot first?'... 'Wondering about the psychological trauma of the staff member.'" It's truly speechless.

Those following the news should know that just yesterday, the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism had already issued the "Notice on Further Optimizing COVID-19 Prevention and Control Measures and Scientifically and Precisely Implementing Prevention and Control Work." Article 16 explicitly prohibits various forms of excessive measures, such as arbitrarily closing schools and suspending classes, stopping work and production, blocking traffic without approval, randomly implementing "silent management," arbitrarily imposing lockdowns, prolonged lockdowns without lifting, randomly suspending medical services, and other forms of policy overreach.

Image source: Internet

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