HONG KONG – It was a stir to behold.
A government worker in northeast China who complained about the harassment of text messages from her boss was caught on video beating him with the activity of a mop, which spurred the debate over the continued harassment in the workplace and made her an internet sensation.
In the 14-minute video, the woman, later identified by her surname, Zhou, can be seen books on the face of her boss, identified as Wang, throwing and drowning him with water, hitting him with the mop. He is seen hiding his face behind his fingers, trying to apologize and saying he was joking when he sent the messages.
It is unclear exactly when the incident took place, but local newspapers said the woman submitted a police report last week in which she accused her boss of harassment, and the video began spreading widely online this week. It has been viewed millions of times, and many users on social media enjoy what they consider to be an unusual display of resistance to an authority figure in a country with limited workplace protection against sexual harassment. Many users donated to the side of the woman and praised her for reversing the balance of power and calling her a defender of justice and a martial artist.
Lu Pin, a leading Chinese feminist activist, said many people viewed the video as an outlet for pent-up anger over the general absence of accountability to harassers and the available use of courts or the police. Many victims of harassment feel powerless to report it and are worried that they will not believe or retaliate.
“Mostly women are forced to remain silent because it is difficult to investigate sexual harassment,” Lu said in an interview Tuesday. ‘This woman took matters into her own hands to protect herself; that her behavior attracts so much attention is a reflection that there are no better ways. ”
Chinese state news media have identified the man as the deputy director of a government agency for poverty alleviation in the Beilin district of Suihua, a city in Heilongjiang province. After an internal investigation found that he had ‘life problems’, he was dismissed from his official duties under the disciplinary measures of the Communist Party, according to his state-run news agency. The female employee was not disciplined, and officials said she had an unspecified ‘mental illness’. No further details were available. Neither the man nor the woman could be reached for comment.
China introduced a law in 2005 banning sexual harassment and giving victims the right to lodge complaints with their employers. A number of regulations have followed in recent years, and this has imposed on the employer the duty to “prevent and limit sexual harassment”. However, few workplaces have adopted strong policies against it, said Darius Longarino, a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School.
“Very few lawsuits have been brought against harassers, and the successful ones are even fewer,” he said. Longarino said in an interview. “If the case only amounts to witness reports, the court will rule that there is insufficient evidence to prove that the harassment took place.”
Harassment victims can even become the targets of lawsuits themselves. In 2019, after a woman in the Chinese city of Chengdu filed a police report saying she had been harassed by a colleague, the colleague sued. Although the case was largely dismissed, the woman was ordered to apologize in a chat group where she discussed the harassment, in order to undo the “adverse consequences” for her colleague.
In the video recordings of the mop episode, Ms Zhou says that Mr. Wang sent unsolicited text messages to her three times and that others in the office received similar unwelcome attention. She can be seen and heard calling and accusing her boss of assault.
While on the phone, she says she has already reported his actions to the police. According to local newspapers, police said they registered her report against her boss last week and that she was investigating her claims. Government offices in the city of Suihua and the district of Beilin, as well as the Beilin district police, did not respond to requests for comment.
Activists called for more protection against the system for such cases.
“How can more victims be supported who have not attracted the attention of the public?” Me. Lu said. “These questions have just been raised and there are no answers.”
Mrs. Zhou’s case is aided by the fact that she has a recording of the recordings of her boss, Mr. Longarino said.
In many situations, he said, “there is no viral video.”
Claire Fu research from Beijing.