2 Chinese accused of child sex abuse

BEIJING — Prosecutors in Shanghai have formally arrested two people over child-molestation allegations, with state media outlets identifying one as a prominent real estate developer.

A brief notice on the Shanghai prosecutor’s office’s microblog said the Putuo district branch had ordered the formal arrest Wednesday of two people, identified only by their surnames, Wang and Zhou.

The official Communist Party newspaper Global Times identified Wang as Wang Zhenhua, formerly chairman of Seazen, one of China’s largest developers. The company announced that Wang Zhenhua’s son, Wang Xiaosong, had been appointed chairman after the father resigned “for personal reasons.”

That announcement came on the same day that Shanghai police reported Wang and Zhou had been detained and an investigation opened into allegations that a girl had been molested at a hotel in Shanghai.

Police cited the girl’s mother as saying that Zhou, 49, had taken her daughter from Jiangsu province to Shanghai on June 30. Zhou surrendered to police on July 2, a day after Wang, 57, was placed under investigation.

The Shanghai city’s official government advisory body announced Monday that it had expelled Wang Zhenhua, depriving him of political connections that could affect any future prosecution.

Child molestation can be punished by up to five years in prison. Chinese media outlets in recent years have reported cases of children being attacked by teachers, relatives and neighbors, although a reluctance to report such incidents by children and their family members, and a lack of resources for conducting investigations, have limited prosecutions.