Author: Tsang Soo
Associated Press
HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese authorities have arrested nine people for allegedly violently attacking several women at a restaurant after surveillance footage of the attack sparked widespread outrage.
At 2:40 a.m. on June 10, footage from a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, northern Hebei province, showed one of the men approaching a table with four women on it, with their hands on one woman’s back.
She turned him down a few times, then he lashed out and slapped her, prompting her to fight back. A fight ensued as a group of men entered the restaurant and brutally assaulted the woman and her dining partner, including pushing them to the ground, kicking them and even throwing chairs at them.
Video taken from outside the restaurant also showed the attackers dragging the woman who rejected the man’s courtship out of the restaurant and viciously beating her, while most passersby and customers looked at pictures of her lying on a stretcher, her face swollen and bleeding, as and Footage of the attack went viral online.
The attack and public outcry reignited the conversation about female misogyny and abuse in China. Earlier this year, a video of her being chained to a wall in a cabin drew a public backlash after authorities initially denied she was a victim of human trafficking. It was later discovered that she had been sold as a bride.
All nine suspects were arrested on June 11, according to a statement issued by the authorities on the microblogging platform Weibo.
The two women are not life-threatening and are being treated in hospital. Their condition is reported to be stable. The other two suffered minor injuries.
Footage of what’s going on inside and outside the restaurant is less than five minutes long. The Weibo user who first posted the videos said in a post that it was “heartbreaking” to watch.
“Does this mean eating out is so unsafe now that we have to carry men with us?” the post read. “(These people) are no different from thugs.”
Upon arrival, the user declined to reveal the source of the video, saying it was “inconvenient” to do so. By the end of the weekend, the video shot inside the restaurant had garnered more than 68 million views, while the imagery attack video outside the restaurant had been taken down.
Social media users condemned the attack and criticized Tangshan police for being slow to catch the suspect.
“I’m a woman, I have a daughter,” said one Weibo user, “Master Baby Cat.” “I want to know, while I create value and spread positive energy for society, will this society protect me and my children?”
CCTV said in an online commentary that criminal suspects must be arrested as soon as possible and “severely punished in accordance with the law” in order to explain to victims and the public.
