China Censors Scandal over Woman Found Chained in a Hut

China’s Twitter-like Weibo and WeChat social media platforms allegedly suspended accounts, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Tuesday, after expressing concern online about a suspected human trafficking case involving a Chinese woman found living in squalid conditions in eastern Jiangsu province in January — including with a chain attached to her neck to prevent her escape.

“[T]he social media accounts of at least two prominent intellectuals have been suspended after they commented on the scandal,” the Hong Kong-based newspaper reported February 22.

Continuing, the SCMP revealed:

Lao Dongyan, a former prosecutor and professor in criminal law with Tsinghua University in Beijing, had her WeChat channel and a newly registered Weibo account suspended after expressing concerns about the incident.

Wu Bihu, a professor at Peking University’s urban and environmental sciences college, has also been suspended from Weibo, a week after calling – through his personal account – for the All-China Women’s Federation to issue a public apology.

Bihu asked the Chinese state-run All-China Women’s Federation to issue an apology for its alleged “silence” on the chained woman’s case, according to the SCMP. In statements shared by Bihu through his Weibo account, the academic called for the federation’s chapter in Xuzhou — which is the Jiangsu province city in which the chained woman was found — “to be dissolved for its failure to protect the basic rights of local women.”

According to the SCMP, the All-China Women’s Federation did issue a statement on the chained woman scandal, despite Bihu’s accusation it had remained “silent” on the issue. The organization said it welcomed an investigation into the matter by the Jiangsu provincial government, adding it hoped the probe would “ascertain the facts, bring justice to the victim and provide the conclusive findings the public needs.”

A video went viral on Chinese social media in late January for appearing to depict a woman chained to a hut in a rural village of Xuzhou. The footage circulated on the social media platform Weibo — which is heavily censored by the Chinese Communist Party — and drew the attention of domestic and foreign media outlets throughout the months of January and February.

The New York-based, China-focused news site SupChina reviewed the video and detailed its contents on January 31. The website described the video as depicting “[a] middle-aged Chinese woman, seemingly dazed and confused, stood in a doorless, shabby shack — with a metal chain tied to her neck and nailed to the wall.”

Continuing, SupChina wrote:

It was freezing cold in the winter, but the woman was wearing no coat. Next to the shed was a warm house where her husband and eight children resided. When asked about the woman’s situation, one of her kids said with an emotionless expression on his face that food was brought to her every day.

Police in Xuzhou allegedly arrested two women on February 13 after they documented via social media a journey to the city to locate the chained woman, the SCMP reported on February 16 citing unnamed sources.

“A Beijing-based lawyer, who could not speak on the record but had been informed about the case, confirmed that two women were detained at the weekend in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province,” the newspaper relayed.

The SCMP said it spoke to other anonymous sources who claimed Xuzhou police detained the two women on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which is a catch-all phrase the Chinese Communist Party uses to charge political dissenters with crimes.