China’s chained woman spurs grand government gestures but where is the plan to treat victims?

Top legislature set to overhaul Law of Women’s Interests and Protection but there seems to be little debate about the welfare of the Xuzhou mother of eight

Beijing’s proposed revisions do not address preventing trafficking or the resettling and rehabilitation of victims, says founder of Equality advocacy group

Reading Time:4 minutes

The huge outpouring of views about the Law of Women’s Interests and Protection shows how concerned the public is about gender equality in China, according to a feminist scholar.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Published: 6:00pm, 13 Mar 2022Updated: 1:18am, 21 Apr 2023

Thousands of members of China’s political elite converge in Beijing each year for the “two sessions”, the country’s biggest annual political meetings. In the third in a series of stories on this year’s major talking points, Mimi Lau looks at legal amendments proposed in response to the huge public outcry over a human trafficking scandal in Xuzhou.

“If we fail to speak up today, anyone of us could be like that Xuzhou mother of eight.”

Variations on this social media comment have been sent across Chinese cyberspace for two months since a human trafficking scandal in Feng county, Xuzhou, in eastern China came to light.

A video of a middle-aged woman chained by her neck in a rundown shack was seen by millions of Chinese after it went viral in January. It was later revealed the woman had been sold twice as a bride and had given birth to eight children.

Anger and disbelief over the cruelty imposed on the woman renewed awareness of gender equality issues and prompted calls for heavier penalties for both traffickers and buyers in a decades-old abduction and trafficking problem.

The central government responded with a high-level investigation and a year-long police crackdown.

SCMP Series

China’s Two Sessions 2022: major talking points

[ 3 of 3 ]