https://sg.news.yahoo.com/man-charged-rape-city-centre-061900959.html
Tue, 5 August 2025 at 11:48 pm SGT·3-min read
A woman is dragged away by police during protests outside the city hall in Jiangyou over the assault on a 14-year-old girl.Photograph: X.com
A large protest erupted in the south-western Chinese city of Jiangyou, videos on social media have shown, after the beating of a young girl by three other teenagers caused public outrage.
Protests are rare in China, where opposition to the ruling Communist party and anything seen as a threat to civil order is swiftly quashed.
But bullying in the country’s ultra-competitive education system has touched a public nerve, with a high-profile killing last year prompting national debate over how the law deals with juvenile offenders.
On Monday, police said two teenage girls were being sent to a correctional school for assaulting and verbally abusing a 14-year-old girl surnamed Lai. The beating, which took place last month and caused multiple bruises to Lai’s scalp and knees, was filmed by bystanders who shared it online, police said.
The onlookers and a third girl who participated in the abuse were “criticised and educated”, police said, adding that their guardians had been “ordered to exercise strict discipline”.
The case drew outrage online from some lamenting that the teenagers’ punishment did not go further. Later on Monday, people gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, in Sichuan province, with large crowds stretching around the block, footage showed.
Video confirmed as having been shot outside the city hall showed at least two people being forcibly pulled aside by a group of blue-shirted and plainclothes police, and a woman in a black dress being dragged away by her limbs.
“They’re sweeping away citizens everywhere,” a person can be heard saying as the woman is dragged away.
More footage taken after dark showed police wearing black Swat uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection where there were hundreds of bystanders.
In a video posted online by the YouTube account Yesterday BigCat, which shares content about protests in China, one protester angrily quotes one of the alleged attackers, who is reported to have boasted about being apprehended but then released by police several times in the past.
On Tuesday, the city of Jiangyou was the second top-trending topic on the Weibo social media platform, before it and related hashtags were censored.
“The sentence is too light … that is why they were so arrogant,” one top-liked Weibo comment under the police statement read.
Local authorities said on WeChat that police had punished two people for fabricating information about the school bullying case, and they warned the public against spreading rumours.
In recent years, protests led by parents or triggered out of concerns for child safety have become increasingly common. In 2023, thousands of people protested in Shangqiu, a city in Henan province, after the death of a 14-year-old student. The boy’s school said he had died by suicide, but his parents said that his body showed signs of physical abuse and said that he had been attacked.
Last year Chinese authorities vowed to crack down on school bullying after a high-profile murder case. In December, a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for murdering his classmate.
The suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, were accused of bullying a 13-year-old classmate over a long period before killing him in an abandoned greenhouse.
Another boy was given 12 years in prison, while a third, who the court found did not harm the victim, was sentenced to correctional education.
With Agence France-Presse
Video shows rare protests in China over beating of schoolgirl by three teenagers
Amy Hawkins in BeijingTue, 5 August 2025 at 11:48 pm SGT·3-min read
A woman is dragged away by police during protests outside the city hall in Jiangyou over the assault on a 14-year-old girl.Photograph: X.com
A large protest erupted in the south-western Chinese city of Jiangyou, videos on social media have shown, after the beating of a young girl by three other teenagers caused public outrage.
Protests are rare in China, where opposition to the ruling Communist party and anything seen as a threat to civil order is swiftly quashed.
But bullying in the country’s ultra-competitive education system has touched a public nerve, with a high-profile killing last year prompting national debate over how the law deals with juvenile offenders.
On Monday, police said two teenage girls were being sent to a correctional school for assaulting and verbally abusing a 14-year-old girl surnamed Lai. The beating, which took place last month and caused multiple bruises to Lai’s scalp and knees, was filmed by bystanders who shared it online, police said.
The onlookers and a third girl who participated in the abuse were “criticised and educated”, police said, adding that their guardians had been “ordered to exercise strict discipline”.
The case drew outrage online from some lamenting that the teenagers’ punishment did not go further. Later on Monday, people gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, in Sichuan province, with large crowds stretching around the block, footage showed.
Video confirmed as having been shot outside the city hall showed at least two people being forcibly pulled aside by a group of blue-shirted and plainclothes police, and a woman in a black dress being dragged away by her limbs.
“They’re sweeping away citizens everywhere,” a person can be heard saying as the woman is dragged away.
More footage taken after dark showed police wearing black Swat uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection where there were hundreds of bystanders.
In a video posted online by the YouTube account Yesterday BigCat, which shares content about protests in China, one protester angrily quotes one of the alleged attackers, who is reported to have boasted about being apprehended but then released by police several times in the past.
On Tuesday, the city of Jiangyou was the second top-trending topic on the Weibo social media platform, before it and related hashtags were censored.
“The sentence is too light … that is why they were so arrogant,” one top-liked Weibo comment under the police statement read.
Local authorities said on WeChat that police had punished two people for fabricating information about the school bullying case, and they warned the public against spreading rumours.
In recent years, protests led by parents or triggered out of concerns for child safety have become increasingly common. In 2023, thousands of people protested in Shangqiu, a city in Henan province, after the death of a 14-year-old student. The boy’s school said he had died by suicide, but his parents said that his body showed signs of physical abuse and said that he had been attacked.
Last year Chinese authorities vowed to crack down on school bullying after a high-profile murder case. In December, a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for murdering his classmate.
The suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, were accused of bullying a 13-year-old classmate over a long period before killing him in an abandoned greenhouse.
Another boy was given 12 years in prison, while a third, who the court found did not harm the victim, was sentenced to correctional education.
With Agence France-Presse
