In an attempt to alleviate public anger over a video of a mother found chained by her neck, Chinese authorities have pushed for swift investigation of the matter. The lady can be seen in a doorless hut in a village, located in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
The provincial government has formed a team to “find the truth, punish those who violated laws, hold those involved accountable and release the results to the public in a timely manner,” state broadcaster China Central Television said on Thursday in a statement on one of its social media accounts. The scandal is said to mar the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in terms of public discourse.
Other media outlets also posted similar statements on their respective social media accounts on Weibo. “The truth will eventually surface!” wrote People’s Daily, a news outlet which is the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. The announcement of the committee comes after a massive outrage on Chinese social media. The video in question has been doing rounds since late January and through the Lunar new year as well. A Weibo thread on the matter was one of the most-read threads, one that witnessed over millions of views.
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The public anger has been directed at the local officials in Xuzhou, a city in Jiangsu. The four statements put out by the local authority have been termed misleading as well as contradictory. They have denied any angle of human trafficking but have arrested two individuals on the charges. They said that the victim is originally from Yunnan. She has speech abnormalities and Schizophrenia and was brought to the province by her friend for treatment. She got married in 1998 and separated from her family. The police detained the woman’s husband (55 years old) last week on charges of inhuman treatment. The woman has eight children whose age has not been revealed to the public.
In a twist, Beijing-based Caixin Global claimed that the woman in the video is not the wife of the arrested 55-year-old man. Instead, the man has been in custody over similar treatment to another woman of the same village, referring to a clip which has been censored by the Chinese authorities.
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A 100 alumni of Peking university requested the central leadership to initiate an extensive investigation into the matter by signing a letter. The letter is no longer available in public. “Unable to view this content because it violates regulations,” reads the page when one tries to access the letter.
In February 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly claimed victory over extreme poverty, terming it a massive milestone. “No other country can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time… A human miracle has been created that will go down in history,” Xi exclaimed. But the conditions of the woman seen in the video raises a question on how prevalent such a situation is throughout China. President Xi will seek a third term as the President in this year’s 20th Party Congress.
