Viral video of restaurant attack sparks outcry in China
BEIJING: A video of three women being viciously attacked by a group of men at a restaurant in northern China triggered online furore - with millions of angry citizens demanding justice - and sparked furious debate on sexual harassment and misogyny in Chinese society.
The footage of the incident that occurred early on Friday in the city of Tangshan, in Hebei province, went viral across Chinese social media soon after being uploaded.
It shows a woman sitting at a table with two female companions at a restaurant, with several other customers sitting around them, when a man touches her back. After the woman pushes him away, the man strikes her before dragging her outside and dealing a barrage of blows as she lies on the ground.
Simultaneously, the man’s companions, who are sitting in a
group outside the restaurant, rush in and join him in assaulting the woman and her friends.
At one point in the footage, a female companion of the man is also struck when she tries to intervene. In all, nine men were seen to be attacking three women.
Police in Tangshan city on Saturday said they had arrested eight people on suspicion of violent assault and “provoking trouble”, while a search for one other suspect was ongoing.
Two women treated at hospital following the incident were “in stable conditions and not in mortal danger”, while two others sustained minor injuries, authorities said on Friday.
The video renewed online debate about sexual harassment and gender-based violence in China where the conversation around women’s rights has grown in recent years despite pressure from a patriarchal society, internet censorship and patchy legal support.
“It might be hard to believe that that happened in 2022, but that’s what can be seen from a monitor video clip that is widespread online,” state-run China Daily newspaper said in a report on Saturday.
The attack generated hundreds of millions of comments on social media, where users urged authorities to crack down on violence against women.
Chinese netizens have raised questions about the sheer brazenness of the incident, given that the suspects knew they were in a public place under the scrutiny of CCTV cameras and passers-by were also seen recording the incident.
“All of this could happen to me, could happen to any of us,” said one commenter in a post liked over 100,000 times.
Campaigners say domestic abuse remains pervasive and underreported while prominent feminists also face regular police harassment and detention. Web censors blocked keywords linked to the #MeToo movement after a wave of women accused university professors of sexual harassment in 2018.