MCLC: rape trial

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: rape trial
***********************************************************

Source: NYT 
(8/28/13):http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/asia/rape-trial-casts-att
ention-on-offspring-of-chinas-elite.html

Rape Trial Casts Spotlight on Offspring of China’s Elite
By CHRIS BUCKLEY

HONG KONG — A gang-rape trial that opened in Beijing on Wednesday
accompanied by a blaze of local media attention has become China’s latest
legal spectacle to cast attention on the lifestyles, and alleged misdeeds,
of the political elite.

One of the five defendants is Li Tianyi, a 17-year-old whose privileged
background and past misdeeds have made him the focus of a media and
Internet uproar about what many see as the sordid ways of the offspring of
the political elite. Mr. Li is the son of celebrity singers for the
People’s Liberation Army and ran into legal trouble before the rape
charges.

The prosecutors allege that the defendants — Mr. Li, three other minors
and a 23-year-old man — took a young woman they had met in a bar in
February to a hotel room in Beijing, beat her, forced her to strip and
sexually assaulted her, according to a report on the Web site of the
newspaper People’s Daily.

Like the recent trial of Bo Xilai, the fallen former politician, the case
has become an intensely watched and debated parable about the privileges
and limited accountability of the Communist Party’s highborn. And
accusations against the woman who says she was raped have stirred
discussion about how the Chinese media and courts deal with victims of
sexual assault and minors accused of crimes.

“The factor behind why the media and everyone is so interested in this
case is that it’s about the so-called ugly officials and ugly rich,” said
Lu Pin, who helps run the Media Monitor for Women Network, an advocacy
group in Beijing.

“Everyone wants to see them exposed in disgrace, because in the majority
of cases nothing is ever revealed,” Ms. Lu said in a telephone interview.
“But in fact, opinion can also easily be turned so that this becomes a
trial of the victim.”

Chinese news Web sites have devoted special subsites to the case, and they
showed pictures of journalists jammed behind police cordons
<http://slide.ent.sina.com.cn/star/slide_4_704_64163.html#p=1> outside the
courthouse on Wednesday, although the trial is closed to the public.
The defendants, including Mr. Li, answered questions in court about the
charges, the official news agency, Xinhua, reported. Mr. Li denied that he
had beaten or had had sex with the woman, according to the Web site of The
Beijing News. But he also said he was too drunk to know anything, the
report said. The trial will continue on Thursday; Chinese courts usually
give verdicts about two weeks after a trial ends.

But for Mr. Li’s high profile, the case probably would never have ignited
the uproar. His father, Li Shuangjiang, is a highly ranked People’s
Liberation Army singer — sometimes, mistakenly, called a general in
Chinese news reports — famed for his rousing odes to the party, patriotism
and military virtues. The suspect’s mother, Meng Ge, is also a well-known
military singer.

The cherub-faced Mr. Li was also dabbling with a musical career, but he
won notoriety in 2011, when a BMW he was driving hit another car. He and
another teenager stepped out and beat and threatened the couple in the
other car. The police later sent him to a labor camp for juvenile
offenders, and since then his struggles have been chronicled in the
Chinese media much as American entertainment news outlets track the
wayward children of Hollywood stars.

“This case caters to the Chinese people’s hatred of officials, the
wealthy, and celebrities,” Chen Youxi, a prominent Chinese lawyer, said in
an interview with Phoenix television
<http://v.ifeng.com/ent/others/201308/019dab72-5f23-40e7-9dd9-289f1cc08659.
shtml>, a broadcaster based in Hong Kong. “Any incident that involves a
famous person, a wealthy person or a princeling, public opinion will be
naturally inclined to hate them, to attack them.”

China’s courts are run by the Communist Party, but both sides in the case
have sought to recruit public opinion to shore up their cases. Ms. Meng
accused the manager of the bar where her son met the woman of running a
prostitution ring and trying to blackmail her family. A law professor in
Beijing suggested that the victim was a prostitute, asserting that she had
endured less harm than a “chaste” woman. News reports have said the victim
worked as a secretary.

The professor later withdrew the comments and apologized. Ms. Lu, the
women’s rights advocate, said the notion that a sex worker was entitled to
less protection showed the pressures that women encounter when they file
sexual assault charges.

“Behind this is the fact that views about sex in China are particularly
unfair to women,” Ms. Lu said. “If you’re a victim and you want to use
public opinion to defend your rights, you pay the price through having
your moral reputation being torn apart.”

Amy Qin contributed reporting from Beijing, and Mia Li contributed
research from Beijing.