The Peng Yu case is the most notorious of these. Five years ago, in Nanjing, Peng helped an elderly woman who had fallen. She later said Peng had pushed her over.
The court found for the woman, charging Peng for some of the costs, saying that
he would not have helped her "if he had not caused the fall".
In Rugao two months ago, a bus driver stopped his vehicle when he saw an 81-year-old woman lying on the ground near her overturned tricycle and went to her aid. She recovered sufficiently, with his help, to tell police that it was the man's bus that had hit her tricycle.
Fortunately for the driver, the bus was fitted with a video camera and police released him after viewing the film. When this case hit the national news, sales of such cameras went through the roof.
"Everybody knows that the incidents of the helped framing the helper account for only a small percentage of such good deeds," Liu said.
"But they take such an attitude for two reasons:
first, they fear falling into the hands of a 'muddle-headed judge' like the one in the Peng Yu case and, second, those who frame their helpers are never punished."
Other elements of this bad Samaritan syndrome include the recent increase in litigiousness in China - where traditionally there has been reluctance to become involved in courts -
and the fear of being held responsible for the often exorbitant fees of hospitals if they treat people who are helped and who cannot meet the payments.