Rare protest against Xi's government in China over schoolgirl's beating

In Jianyu, hundreds of people took to the streets after a brutal beating of a 14-year-old girl, accusing the authorities of being too lenient towards the attackers. The incident caused a wave of outrage on social media and cast doubt on the ability of local officials to maintain public trust. This is reported by Bloomberg, according to UNN.

Details

The events unfolded after a video of the July attack appeared online: three teenagers lured the victim to an abandoned building, where they kicked, slapped, and humiliated her. When the police responded only the next day, calling the injuries "minor" and assigning correctional training to the attackers, the outrage escalated into a mass protest.

By evening, hundreds of residents had gathered near the local administration building. In eyewitness videos, protesters can be heard asking law enforcement officers: "Do you also have children? What would you do if they were beaten like that?" The police dispersed the crowd with batons, detaining several people.

Censorship quickly limited the spread of information: discussions of the incident disappeared from Weibo and WeChat, and searches on Xiaohongshu showed no results after July 20.

Analysts note that the outrage in Jianyu is not an isolated case: recently, the number of scandals related to abuses by local officials has been growing in China, which undermines the implementation of state policy. Although the protesters did not oppose the central government and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the incident demonstrated the risks for a system where concealing information often prevails over transparent problem-solving.

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