Emotion in China, following an outbreak of gender-based violence in a restaurant
The cameras recorded everything: an unprecedented surge of violence falling on women in a restaurant in Tangshan, China, sparked strong reactions and nine arrests.
© Video surveillance screenshot
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The unbearable images revolted social networks.
Nine people were arrested in northern China following an attack of rare brutality that targeted three women who were dining at the restaurant on Friday June 10.
A veritable outburst of violence.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
A hand on her back pushed away by a client, then the man insists, a lot… and it's immediately an unbearable outburst of violence.
Rain of blows
: fists, feet, bottle blows too;
men go after three women at a table in a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, the steel capital east of Beijing.
The cameras in the tavern recorded everything.
And since the attack, which occurred on Friday evening, the Chinese networks have only been talking about this.
One wonders: why this gratuitous violence?
Why “
did the police take longer to intervene and arrest the main suspect than to trace a Covid contact case
?
“, reports the
Guangming
newspaper .
We are indignant: why the other customers and the employees of the restaurant did not move?
“
There is no justice without anger and the law must defend human dignity
,
” writes
the famous lawyer Luo Xiang.
But it should also encourage good deeds and bravery in the face of such aggression.
»
As of Friday evening, institutional voices are putting pressure on the police: the "women's league" of Tangshan,
the People's Daily
, are calling for rapid arrests.
Four people injured, nine arrested
According to the authorities this Saturday, the nine assailants were arrested, one of them in Jiangsu province, where he allegedly tried to flee.
Two of the victims are in “
stable condition
”, two others were slightly injured.
An attack that revives the debate on misogyny and harassment suffered by Chinese women in a patriarchal country, where censorship and legal obstacles stifle the feminist movement.
Nearly one in four married women in China have experienced domestic violence, according to a 2013 All China Women's Federation survey
cited by AFP
.
Tangshan's indignation has awakened the memory of the past few years.
“
A 2020 report by the Beijing Equality organization showed that more than 900 women had been killed by their spouses since the law against domestic violence came into force in 2016
,”
recalls SupChina
.
Two years ago, Tibetan influencer Lhamo Lhamo was burned to death by her husband during a live broadcast, while "
her complaints of domestic violence had never been heard
", recalls the site. specialized information on China.
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