Chinese authorities have arrested nine people on suspicion of violently attacking several women in a restaurant, as surveillance plans sparked widespread outrage. Shots from a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan in northern Hebei Province at 2:40 p.m. on Friday, shows one of the men approaching a table where a group of four women were sitting and putting his hand on a woman’s back. She repulsed him several times before he got angry and slapped her, pushing her to counterattack. An altercation ensued, with a group of men entering the restaurant and brutally attacking the woman and her companions while eating, pushing them to the ground, kicking them and even throwing them a chair. Shots taken outside the restaurant also showed the perpetrators dragging the woman who had blocked the man out of the facility and beating her wildly while most passers-by and spectators were looking at her. Photographs of her lying on a stretcher, with a swollen and bloodied face, as well as footage of the attack, went viral on the internet. Attack and public outcry have revived talk of misogyny and mistreatment of women in China. Earlier this year, a viral video of a woman chained to a wall in a hut sparked public outcry after authorities initially denied she was a victim of human trafficking. It was later found that she had been sold as a bride. All nine suspects were arrested on Saturday, according to authorities on the Weibo microblogging platform. Two women had suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were being treated in hospital. Their condition is said to be stable. Two others were slightly injured. The footage of what happened both inside and outside the restaurant was just five minutes. The Weibo user who was one of the first to post the videos said in a post that it was “heartbreaking” to watch. “Does that mean food outside is so unsafe now, do we have to bring men with us wherever we go?” the post was read. “(These men) are no different from criminals.” When it arrived, the user declined to reveal the source of the videos, saying it was “inconvenient” to do so. By Sunday, the video shot inside the restaurant had garnered more than 68 million views, while the video showing the graphic attack outside the restaurant had been removed. Social media users condemned the attack and criticized Tangshan police for delaying arresting the suspects. “I’m a woman and I have a daughter,” said a Weibo user with the BaobaomaoDaren handle. “I wonder – as I create value for society and dissipate positive energy, will this society protect me and my child?” The state-run CCTV network said in an online comment that the suspects should be arrested as soon as possible and “severely punished according to the law” in order to be accountable to the victims and the public. —— Associated Press news researchers Caroline Chen and Henry Hou in Beijing contributed to this report.
