Originally Written : August 12, 2022
By Xinyi Liu
A vicious attack was launched on four females at a restaurant in Tangshan, China in June 2022. After one of the attackers first approached one of the females and attempted to sexually harass her, he was met with resistance by the woman. This sparked anger in the attacker and his companions. They violently assaulted the woman and her three other friends. As shown in the restaurant surveillance footage, the fight was later moved outside the restaurant as one of the females was dragged by her hair and was smashed in the head by 7 or 8 beer bottles. The group of men surrounded one of the females and continued to assault her through kicking and punching as she begs for them to stop.
“If I went to break up the fight, I would get hit and my friends would step in, which would worsen the situation…the only way was to call the police. After I took evidence, I went to a store far away and dialed 110.” Said a witness at the restaurant.
The Hebei police sent out a public notice on June 21st, reporting a class 2 minor injury on two victims and a small minor injury on the other two. However, the pictures released by the hospital that the females were sent to prove the situation was much worse than a minor injury.
On July 25th, the Director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security ZhongYi Liu announced that the police will thoroughly investigate the case and punish the perpetrators according to law. However, nothing was announced about the current situation of the victims.
In August 2022, after more than two months of the assault, nothing is heard from the four victims. The public is questioning why the victims are completely silent and whether they are even alive.
This attack has sparked public debate over women’s rights in society and lead to comments on the Internet from traditional-minded people. A female Chinese influencer XiaoPang Fang responded to the Tangshan attack in a live, stating that she thinks the four victims deserved getting beat up, and “it’s you women who don’t know how to be careful…wearing high heels, shorts..” Ms. Fang blamed the four victims for dressing up and being flirtatious and pointed out that was why they were beat up. Another comment was left on social media, saying: “A woman from a decent family would not go out to a restaurant in the middle of the night.”
With the lack of transparency in the government when handling this attack, most of the injuries and trauma the victims felt was not revealed to public with many articles written about this situation being censored. Human Rights Youth Advocacy is actively working on issues like this to have the voices of those being discriminated upon be heard.
Citations
Kwan, Rhoda. "Chinese city stripped of 'civilized' status after assault sparks outrage over male violence." NBC news. June 23, 2022.https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/tangshan-assault-civilized-status-china-violence-women-rcna34958 (accessed August 12, 2022)
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