Video shows rare protests in China over beating of schoolgirl by three teenagers

The Guardian

2 hours ago

A large protest erupted in the south-western Chinese city of Jiangyou, videos on social media have shown, after the beating of a young girl by three other teenagers caused public outrage.
Protests are rare in China, where opposition to the ruling Communist party and anything seen as a threat to civil order is swiftly quashed.
But bullying in the country's ultra-competitive education system has touched a public nerve, with a high-profile killing last year prompting national debate over how the law deals with juvenile offenders.
On Monday, police said two teenage girls were being sent to a correctional school for assaulting and verbally abusing a 14-year-old girl surnamed Lai.
The beating, which took place last month and caused multiple bruises to Lai's scalp and knees, was filmed by bystanders who shared it online, police said.
The onlookers and a third girl who participated in the abuse were 'criticised and educated', police said, adding that their guardians had been 'ordered to exercise strict discipline'.
The case drew outrage online from some lamenting that the teenagers' punishment did not go further. Later on Monday, people gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, in Sichuan province, with large crowds stretching around the block, footage showed.
Video confirmed as having been shot outside the city hall showed at least two people being forcibly pulled aside by a group of blue-shirted and plainclothes police, and a woman in a black dress being dragged away by her limbs.
'They're sweeping away citizens everywhere,' a person can be heard saying as the woman is dragged away.
More footage taken after dark showed police wearing black Swat uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection where there were hundreds of bystanders.
On Tuesday, the city of Jiangyou was the second top-trending topic on the Weibo social media platform, before it and related hashtags were censored.
'The sentence is too light … that is why they were so arrogant,' one top-liked Weibo comment under the police statement read.
Local authorities said on WeChat that police had punished two people for fabricating information about the school bullying case, and they warned the public against spreading rumours.
Last year Chinese authorities vowed to crack down on school bullying after a high-profile murder case. In December, a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for murdering his classmate.
The suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, were accused of bullying a 13-year-old classmate over a long period before killing him in an abandoned greenhouse.
Another boy was given 12 years in prison, while a third, whom the court found did not harm the victim, was sentenced to correctional education.