Chinese police have publicly vowed to take action following the discovery of a woman being held against her will in a barn, chained by the neck.
It’s a story that moved all of China, and for good reason. The video ofa woman tied by the neck in a barn in the Chinese province of Jiangsu circulated on social media in January 2022 before finally provoking a response from the authorities. The video, posted on January 28 by a vlogger whose mission is to show people living in poverty in order to organize donation campaigns for them, was broadcast on the Chinese equivalent of TikTok and quickly reaches almost two billion views on social media. It shows the woman wearing only a few clothes despite the freezing temperature, and is clearly in psychological distress, talking to herself. After her discovery and rescue, she was able to be diagnosed and hospitalized for schizophrenia.
On the day the video was released, local authorities released her last name, Yang, and explained that her 55-year-old husband Dong, whom she married in 1998, took her tied up because of violent crises. This statement caused a strong reaction from Internet users and raised many questions about human trafficking in china but also on the consequences of the one-child policy, which was only lifted in 2016.”I hope this case will lead to a national crackdown on human trafficking.” commented a user. In fact, the victim’s husband is suspected of illegal detention after a possible abduction for reproductive purposes, the couple having had eight children despite the one-child policy and the legitimacy of their marriage having been questioned by the police.
Internet users denounce human trafficking in China
Authorities say two other people are suspected of kidnapping and also face charges for their connection to the case. The victim was found 2,000 kilometers from her home village in Yunnan Province and may be just one of many women to have been abducted. The one-child policy has indeed led to a demographic imbalance between boys and girls, boys being more valuable in the eyes of society. After several decades, the latter ended up being much more numerous, especially in the villages. Women are therefore regularly abducted and forcibly married. According to what our colleagues report in Lematin, the local authorities are determined to “discover the whole truth and to severely punish the criminal acts in question, for which those responsible must be held accountable”.
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She suffered from schizophrenia
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Her husband is suspected of abducting her
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They had 8 children
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It was a vlogger who found her
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He filmed the victim
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The video made the rounds on social media
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It has been viewed almost 2 billion times
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Police also suspect a couple
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Jiangsu Province
The victim was found more than 2000km from his home
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Jiangsu Province
The one-child policy has caused many kidnappings