cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45401980
They called the police. They showed their wounds. They begged for protection.
But when two women in China tried to escape their violent husbands, the system that promised to protect them looked the other way, until it was too late. One woman died from being beaten. The other woman was left severely injured.
Their stories rippled across the Chinese internet, setting off a wave of anger over how authorities treat domestic violence as a private family matter, even as state media has called for "zero tolerance” of abuses.
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said the country needed to "resolutely combat all forms of violence against women” when he spoke at a global summit for women in Beijing last month. But he has also fostered a culture that emphasizes women’s traditional role at home, creating a reluctance among the police and courts to break families apart even when there is violence.
Activists say that the resulting inconsistent enforcement of laws has led to most cases going unpunished. A crackdown on nonprofit groups has made things worse by shutting down volunteers who once helped to provide aid and support to victims of domestic abuse.
[…]
China has a wide-ranging anti-domestic violence law that was signed into law in 2016 and covers both physical and emotional abuse, and includes legal tools that authorities can use, like protection orders and mechanisms for reported cases to be expedited.
"The law on paper is quite advanced,” said Xin He, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. But when it comes to enforcement of the law, the authorities are failing many victims, and there are not enough social workers to support victims,” He said.
"The system has a lot of inadequacies, which is why you see a lot of women that feel so helpless.”
[…]
"When the police intervene, then they will emphasize staying in the marriage. The police often see their role as a mediator,” said Minglu Chen, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney who studies gender and politics in China. "There are also cultural forces in China, because the family is seen as a source of stability and any wrongdoing that happens within the family, you have to keep it in the family.”
[…]
A woman named Ms. Xie, who chose not to disclose her first name, told state broadcaster CCTV she was attacked by her husband more than a dozen times over her three-year marriage and that she had repeatedly asked the police to detain him.
In April 2023, she went to a court in Chengdu to seek a restraining order but was turned away. The court argued that the case was outside its jurisdiction because her husband was not originally from Chengdu.
[…]
When her husband found out that Ms. Xie had applied for a restraining order, he beat her for hours. She was sent to a hospital the next day, where doctors found that her liver, kidney and small intestine had ruptured. Her injuries, which included a broken nose and ribs, left her in critical condition for a week.
[…]
“Shut up and don’t show the world we suck just like them”
Yeah I don’t think Japan has any business lecturing China on “abuse” lol.
In what way does that justify China’s behavior?
It wasn’t meant to. Keep up.
It’s literally the only purpose of whataboutism. Keep up yourself.
And another
“Slave master lectures slave traders about slavery”
As opposed to other countries where that advice is merely implied, by making enforcement of anti abuse laws a joke, and not doing a thing to address the systemic issues that keep people in abusive environments.
Whataboutist spotted
Pointing out hypocrisy isn’t whataboutism, nor is recognizing that the news media (in basically every country) is to some degree producing propaganda.
