Sex attack scandal

The story "Brit beaten after alleged sex attack" appeared on May 11 in Metro Beijing's front page.

A video which emerged online depicting a foreigner allegedly sexually molesting a young Chinese girl and being beaten by vigilantes has become one of the hottest topics of the year so far.

A wave of nationalism and hatred for foreigners has been stirred up in its wake, and foreigners have now become a much commented topic online.

　　The story:

The three-minute video recorded by a passerby went viral on the Internet on May 9. It appeared to show a man molesting a Chinese woman by the side of a public road; the man then appears to be violently attacked by angry locals, who continue to beat him on the ground. He is left in the middle of the street as the police arrive.

Police confirmed that a British tourist was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault on Xuanwumenwai Dajie on May 8.　

The British embassy has offered support, but much is going on behind closed doors. The Beijing police have refused to reveal more information in subsequent phone calls.

　　The back story:

The more I look back on this story, the more I see how much hurt it has created, not just to those involved, but to everyone around it too.　

I was stunned when I saw the video of the girl, half naked and crying, shouting "I don't know this guy," while a foreign man was standing between her legs.

In the background, all the cars honking with their headlights turned right up, were a nasty indication that this was a busy public road.　

My first reaction was not a particularly journalistic one, there was an urge to join the mob and shout, "how dare you treat a woman like this!" and to shower praise on the gang that beat a foreigner senseless.

But I knew that I needed to find out what really happened first. The video was particularly poorly edited and grainy, and there was a lot of Internet speculation as to whether the girl had been "offering her services," and was out for money.

I was fed up with the speculation and the questions like "was it rape or seduction?" And I have to say, I was also annoyed at the general indication that all Chinese women would throw themselves at a foreign man for money or otherwise.

It's always difficult to dig out the truth behind some of these viral videos and "Internet sensations," and it's not going to happen sitting in an office chair. After watching the video, I headed over to Xuanwumen to poke around and see if anybody knew anything.

After asking around 10 local businesses, each of whom passed me on to the next, I was directed to a local hair salon, where a couple of the witnesses I sought were sitting outside.

They told me to "get lost" and "stop asking questions." They had been warned by the police not to speak about the incident because of the investigation. They told me they felt victimized for doing the right thing.

Their attitude was proven to be unfounded, when the police announcement later that day stated that the vigilantes had "stopped a crime and helped to apprehend a suspect."

　　Key testimony

It's a fact of life in a city of 20 million people that nothing can go unobserved. But none of the waitresses at a 24-hour snackbooth knew anything about the situation, despite my graphic descriptions.

It was in the parking lot outside the hair salon that I bumped into a key witness.

A car park assistant was being interrogated by his boss. The boss wanted to know exactly what his employee had told the police, in fear that his property management company's name would be dragged through the mud.

I intervened along with another car park assistant to try and offer some moral support. Once the boss had left, we had a quiet chat in the car park.

Bao Lai was the assistant's name, a 24-year-old, from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Looking at Bao, around 165-centimeters-tall, I found it hard to believe he would have stood up to the much taller foreign man.

Bao was the first on scene in the video, attempting to pull the unidentified British man away from the girl. Rolling up his trouser leg, he showed me the bruise he gained from a swift reactionary kick.

I pitched the idea to Bao that the entire situation and the video could have been a set up; a way of stirring up anti-foreign feeling, or just a way for the young woman to extort money. Bao hadn't even seen the video, and gave me a puzzled look.

In the taxi on the way back to the office, I managed to get in touch with a microblog user named Xiao Lei, who was claiming that he had witnessed the foreigner "sexually assaulting" women on the subway.

Xiao said that the man would thrust himself lewdly at the women, and then ask each girl "was it OK?" after performing an indecent act.

"Now I am being accused of not reporting him to the police earlier. I feel very guilty," added Xiao melodramatically. "But what could I do if no victim called out for help?"

　　The backlash

I saw in the Beijing Times that a local man was accused of harassing women in subway on May 19, and was immediately given detention for 20 days.

It seems a stark contrast to how the incident in our story was treated. But then there's no need to stir up any controversy over that.

The video was posted as a "laowai trying to rape a Chinese girl in public, let's remember his face and beat him every time we see him."

The can of worms of Chinese Internet nationalism and hatred for foreigners was officially open. Some web users called for investigations into foreigners and their visa status.　

The next week a campaign was kicked off, to clamp down on the "three illegal foreigners," including those working on inappropriate visas, but Beijing police told the Global Times that there was no connection between the two events.