Shanghai police detain harassment suspect

Shanghai police have detained a 23-year-old man for harassment following an online furor over the alleged victim’s complaints that her postings about the incident at a Starbucks had been deleted to “preserve ethnic unity.”

Police confirmed the suspect was a Muslim of Chinese nationality, the victim said Sunday.

He was detained Saturday for “repeatedly harassing the girl after he was drunk on Thursday,” Huangpu district police in Shanghai announced on Sunday via its Sina Weibo account.

The victim alleged Friday that she was “attacked by a Middle Easternlooking Muslim man” at a Starbucks on the Bund in a posting on her Sina Weibo account using her online name “Ningsuk.” The man also told her he was an Arab Muslim, according to the posting.

For about two hours, the Muslim man forcibly pulled at her trying to force her to take a selfie with him outside the coffee shop, she said. Starbucks staff helped halt the harassment and sought to call the authorities, but the woman refused, police said in its Sina Weibo statement.

The alleged victim then claimed that on Saturday that she received an anonymous phone call ordering her to delete her post for “undermining ethnic unity.”

Her post about the deletion on Saturday received 122,301 likes and 4,098 comments on Sina Weibo as of press time. Most people expressed indignation that a posting about personal safety was allegedly deleted for reasons linked to ethnic unity.

The local police are trying to identify the person who ordered the woman to delete her postings on the phone, “Ningsuk” posted on Saturday via Sina Weibo.