Chinese authorities have arrested nine men over a brutal attack on a group of women at a restaurant in Tangshan City in northern China.
CCTV footage of the incident widely circulated online shows a man placing his hand on a woman's back as she shares a meal with two companions at a barbecue restaurant in the city within Hebei province in the early hours of Friday, The Guardian reported.
After the woman pushes him away, the man strikes her before others drag her outside and deal a barrage of blows as she lies on the ground. Another woman is also knocked to the floor.
Video Sparks Public Outrage
The video quickly went viral on China's internet and renewed a debate about sexual harassment and gender-based violence in a country where the conversation around women's rights has grown in recent years despite pressure from a patriarchal society, internet censorship, and patchy legal support.
3. Video 2 https://t.co/flfcyRhMMg
— 巴丢草 Bad ї ucao (@badiucao) June 11, 2022
Last year, when Xiao Meili, a well-known Chinese feminist, requested a man to stop smoking, he threw a boiling liquid at her in a restaurant. Despite being the target of the assault, Xiao claims she was regularly mocked on China's internet, with many accusing her of provoking trouble.
After a wave of women accused university professors of sexual harassment in 2018, internet censors blocklisted keywords related to the MeToo movement. Domestic violence, according to campaigners, is nonetheless widespread and underreported.
Even at a time when male aggression against women is frequently in the news in China, the clip went viral almost immediately and struck a chord with many Chinese women, as per a report from SupChina.
An Epidemic of Gender-Based Violence in China
The attack's arrogance, mixed with the spectators' apparent indifference, sparked a new surge of dread and rage among them, driving them to resort to social media to demand a stop to what they called the country's "epidemic of gender-based violence."
One Chinese woman expressed in Chinese that watching the video made her feel despair. "She was just hanging out with friends and didn't want to be disturbed by some random guy. This is something that could happen to me one day," she said.
The lack of action by law enforcement agencies added to the resentment. According to sources close to the situation, local police were called to the location when the incident occurred on Thursday evening.
The attackers had already fled when they arrived. The authorities did little in the hours after the woman, and one of her friends were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
Although sexual abuse is now more legally punishable, the mood on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo is gloomy. Many believe the case will end with a minor penalty and a minimal fine.
Meanwhile, the two victims were brought to a hospital to be treated for their non-life-threatening injuries. According to a report from The Guardian, authorities claim they are "in stable conditions."
Women in China have had little success in recent years in holding abusers accountable. Few cases have been decided in favor of the victim unless there is video evidence. China's persistent lockdowns have intensified domestic attacks in the previous two years, per a BBC story.
