Locals feeling like they are always getting it worse than foreigners is a common sentiment.

Recently, the Chinese have gone online to decry the supposed unfair treatment of locals as compared to foreigners in China.

It's not fair

The outcry was sparked after metro staff punished a local man in Nanjing city for eating on the train, but not doing so for a foreigner who was doing the same.

A commentator online took to Weibo on July 10 to point out what he sees as preferential treatment, which several other netizens concurred was the case as well.

The post read:

"8:20pm at night, Nanjing subway line number 2.

A foreign woman sitting directly opposite me was eating something from Starbucks, while a Chinese man sitting adjacent to me was drinking a cup of milk tea.

Two metro personnel came, and carried out the law selectively.

They simply asked the foreigner to keep her bread, while they gave the local man a ticket.

I'd like to ask, which law in particular is the police following for them to carry out such preferential treatment?

The Weibo user also tagged the Nanjing Metro and Nanjing police at the end of the post.

The Nanjing Metro fines eating offenders from RMB20(S$3.95) to RMB100 (S$19.75).

Netizens react

All need to be punished, regardless of their nationality.

This sort of news breaks my heart.

Target the deed, not the doer. If you're punishing someone, then punish them all. If you're letting someone go, let them all go.

Caucasian highnesses are all daddies.

Nanjing Metro's response

Nanjing Metro has since admitted it could have handled the situation better.

Here's what the statement says in brief:

"Due to a language barrier, we only gave the foreign passengers a verbal warning at that time.

In doing so, we have indeed been unfair in carrying out the law.

We will strengthen the training of our personnel, so as to prevent similar situations from happening again."

No can do

Many netizens remain unconvinced by the Nanjing Metro's response.

I laughed when they brought up the problem of a "language barrier". Don't tell me the Chinese can get away with breaking the law in America just by saying they don't understand English. If they're lucky, they might get away lightly with just getting shocked by a stun baton. If not, they might get beaten to a pulp.

Language barrier? This is not a problem at all! The ones who should worry about language barriers in China are the foreigners, not the Chinese, and definitely not law enforcers like you guys!

Top image via Spongepiepy/Weibo