China prosecutes 28 suspects over restaurant attack on women

BEIJING • Chinese prosecutors said yesterday they had launched criminal proceedings against 28 people suspected of assaulting a group of women in a viral incident that sparked outrage over gender-based violence in the country.

Footage of several men attacking four women in a barbecue restaurant in June in Tangshan, east of Beijing, was shared widely online, renewing debate about violence against women in China.

The men carried out the assault after the women rejected their advances, the footage showed.

Prosecutors in Hebei province said they would begin legal proceedings against the suspects - including seven directly involved in the assault - after they obtained "reliable and sufficient" evidence.

The statement, shared on China's Twitter-like Weibo service, did not specify a criminal charge. Police identified the prime suspect in the June attack as "Chen", saying he "recklessly used violence to commit evil", according to state broadcaster CCTV.

After the attack, Tangshan authorities sacked the city's deputy police chief and five other police officers, and launched a crackdown against organised crime.

Discussion of feminism has grown in the country despite pressure from its patriarchal society, widespread censorship and patchy legal support for victims. But viral online essays slamming the attack as symbolic of the country's larger problem of gender-based violence were censored.

Two women were hospitalised following the incident and two others sustained minor injuries, the authorities said.

Women's rights campaigners say domestic abuse remains pervasive and under-reported in China, while prominent feminists also face regular police harassment and detention. Local journalists who travelled to Tangshan to seek information about the victims were harassed, intimidated and even detained, according to the United States-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Early this month, a Tangshan man allegedly killed his girlfriend by repeatedly driving his car over her in broad daylight. Surveillance footage of the incident sparked widespread outrage online before being censored.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE