Footage of the widely circulated incident on the internet shows a man putting his hand on a woman’s back as he shares a meal with two companions at a barbecue restaurant in the northern Chinese province of Hebei. After the woman pushes him away, the man hits her before others pull her out and give her a thunderstorm as she lies on the ground. Another woman is also hit on the floor. The video sparked an online discussion of sexual harassment and gender-based violence in China, where the debate over women’s rights has grown in recent years despite pressure from a patriarchal society, Internet censorship and heterogeneous legal support. Campaigners say domestic abuse remains a widespread and incomplete report, and prominent feminists also face regular harassment and police detention. Web censors have blocked keywords linked to the MeToo movement following a wave of women accusing university professors of sexual harassment in 2018. Tangshan police said on Saturday they had arrested eight people on suspicion of violent assault and “rioting” as the search for another suspect continued. Two women who were hospitalized after the incident were “in stable condition and not in mortal danger”, while two others were slightly injured, authorities said on Friday. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST The attack sparked hundreds of millions of comments on social media, with users urging authorities to crack down on violence against women. “All of this could happen to me, it could happen to any of us,” one commenter said in a post that was liked more than 100,000 times. “How is something like this still happening in 2022?” wrote another. “Please condemn the criminal sentences and do not let any of them escape.” Last year, a Chinese man was sentenced to death for the murder of his ex-wife as she made a live broadcast on social media, in a case that shocked the nation.
