A video of an elderly Chinese woman who died outside a Hunan bank after she had to appear in person to make a withdrawal to pay for her medical expenses aroused indignation of social media in the face of rigid banking regulations which favor security in relation to accessibility.
The woman who was hospitalized for a hemiplegia, a condition in which half of the person's body is paralyzed, was brought to the bank in wheelchair by her family after the bank insisted so that she came in person to withdraw her fixed deposit of 50,000 yuan (or $ 6,937 US), according to a video published by her Neehew on Weibo on Wednesday.
The seriously ill woman died at the entrance to the branch of the Tianxin agricultural bank in China in the city of Zhuzhou of the Chinese Central Province of Hunan before being able to carry out the withdrawal procedure, said the nephew in the video.
The money was to be used so that the elderly receives an additional treatment in another hospital to which she was transferred, he said.
According to the local media of the Chinese state Da Wan News, she failed to pass facial recognition several times because she was too sick to blink or shake her head as required during the projection and died after almost an hour and a half of failed attempts.
In China, banks like the China Agricultural Bank have made it compulsory to use facial recognition technology to treat withdrawals. Consequently, there have been similar incidents in the past where families were forced to take the elderly, including a father dying in 2023 and another in 2024, at the bank to obtain their money.
These incidents have generally sparked general indignation on Chinese social media platforms. Discussions around the last on social networks, in particular on Weibo, have collected millions of views, because Internet users have criticized the bank for lack of flexibility and sensitivity to the concerns and needs of vulnerable customers.
“The management systems of many of our banks have long been integrated into many advanced technologies, but the only lack is: humanity,” wrote a surfer named Duan Lang.
“The bank obliges the person to withdraw money in person by examination for the security of customer funds, but should regulations not be human? When confronted with an elderly person so seriously ill, can it not manage it in a flexible way? ” asked another user.
Chinese Internet users have also called for reforms regulations and policies in industry institutions to show more empathy for sick and elderly customers and offer alternative solutions to meet their needs.
“Sometimes the requirements of the bank are too hard … Can't we provide door to door in special circumstances?” asked for a user.
“During the formulation of rules, should not all industries consider the needs of special groups and show more human care? Do not let the” system “become an excuse to hurt others,” a surfer named Snowstorm.
“The real problem is that the financial regulation agency lacks detailed regulations … (and) prioritizes banking security,” said Pang Jiulin, a lawyer working in a law firm in Beijing, on Weibo.
With regard to this week's incident, a staff member of the Shifeng district office – one of the four urban districts of the city of Zhuzhou in the Hunan province – said that the police of his Tianxin subdistrict intervened and investigated the issue.
The Zhuzhou branch of the China Agricultural Bank said that the bank had created a special working group to cooperate fully with the police during the surveys.
Edited by Tenzin Pema.