Spate of sexual assault allegations triggers online debate in China

BEIJING: Allegations of sexual abuse against more than 20 journalists and academics this past week have taken China’s online world by storm, with many of the accusations made via open letters circulated on social media platforms.

A series of posts by victims have detailed how they were sexually assaulted by peers, in some cases following official gatherings.

In many cases, bosses and co-workers were involved. The victims say friends and family discouraged them from going public. Then they took to social media, taking China’s online world by storm.

“The accusations have stoked heated online debate about sexual misconduct and what constitutes consensual sex or rape. On Friday, ‘sexual assault evidence collection’ was the second-ranked topic on popular social media platform Sina Weibo (China’s version of Twitter),” reported the state-controlled Beijing Times.

In China, the hashtag #MeToo — the symbol for the worldwide movement against sexual assault by those wielding power and position — has appeared on searches some 77 million times. However, a majority of those posts aren’t viewable, said a state media report, possibly because of online censorship.

Besides being censored, allegations of assault were often swept under the carpet as the cases involved wellknown personalities, reports said. That attitude could be showing reluctant signs of change, especially among urban women in China.

It remains to be seen how effective the movement will be in a country where civil society is tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party of China.