2 detained in China after trying to visit woman found chained up in hut
- Police hold two women who had tried to see her at a psychiatric hospital and had displayed messages about her on their cars and on social media
- Video of the chained woman had sparked outrage and, after initial denials from the authorities, the discovery that she had been trafficked
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, and said that their families were seeking legal help.
Calls to Xuzhou police were not answered.
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There has been nationwide uproar after a video showing a woman chained up in a hut in Xuzhou last month went viral on Chinese social media.
She was found to be a trafficked woman who had been forced to marry and have eight children, and was said to have been sometimes locked up and chained by her husband since last June after – according to the authorities – she showed signs of mental illness.
Social media posts by the two women detained by police had said that they had gone to Xuzhou hoping to visit the woman at a psychiatric hospital.
One of the two wrote on her Weibo account, under the name Wuyigucheng: “Women have the power to fight against sexual assault/harassment by men, women help women.”
They wrote slogans in red on their cars – as well as posts on Weibo, some of which were censored – accusing the husband of rape and profiting from government poverty subsidies.
Police forced them to remove the car slogans. They made repeated attempts to visit the woman in hospital, but were refused entry by staff.
The pair continued to speak out about the plight of the woman until Friday, when their last Weibo post showed them at a police station. They have not been contactable since.
