China silences trafficking debate sparked by ‘chained woman’ scandal
- Academics and journalists say they have been told to stop talking about the case and some social media accounts are suspended
- Official media outlets have fallen silent on the issue since a thorough investigation was promised by provincial authorities
A month after the woman’s treatment came to light, a number of academics reported they have been told to stop talking about the mother of eight – who was chained by the neck in a shed, apparently by her husband, in Xuzhou’s Feng county in Jiangsu province.
The woman’s plight came to light when a video of the dazed-looking, middle-aged woman was circulated on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, sparking nationwide outrage.
A number of former journalists who worked to trace her identity, which is still uncertain, cast doubt on the credibility of local government investigations – after initial conflicting official accounts over the woman’s circumstances which fuelled the anger.
Dozens of lawyers, artists, writers and academics poured their thoughts into online articles, live-stream videos and art works to express their discontent. As of this week, the topic had attracted views in their multibillions on social media platform Weibo, with tens of millions of comments from hundreds of thousands of people.
Now the social media accounts of at least two prominent intellectuals have been suspended after they commented on the scandal.
