Hutong Cat | Sex under coercion is common in Chinese politics. Ask the State
The government admits it all the time when convenient. The indictments in austere language are usually made public by CCDI. The victims don’t have a voice
A line umpire somewhere could have chuckled at how quickly Chinese censors found fault with tennis star Peng Shuai’s November 2 social media post in which she alleged that retired vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, had coerced her into sex.
Given that President Xi Jinping’s famed “anti-corruption” drive, beginning 2013, has brought down hundreds of thousands of “tigers” and “flies” – easy to understand the hierarchy among the corrupt here – it is impossible to collate how many times that particular charge has been filed. (AFP)
Peng published her post, an emotional personal statement that went back and forth in time, a day after Zhang’s 75th birthday – for the first time a #MeToo allegation reached the ruling Communist party’s top leadership. Peng’s online presence was soon scrubbed from China’s Twitter-like social media platform.
Peng, 35, committed two mistakes in publishing the allegations – first, well, that she levelled the accusations, and second that she levelled them, and not the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top discipline watchdog.
Sex under coercion is common in Chinese politics. The Chinese government admits it all the time when convenient. Besides violating CPC principles, betraying national secrets, accepting bribes, leading a corrupt and “decadent lifestyle”, “trading sex for power and money” is an accusation that’s common in the litany of charges that are framed against politicians and officials who are punished or purged by the party. The indictments in austere language are usually made public by the CCDI. The victims don’t have a voice.
Given that President Xi Jinping’s famed “anti-corruption” drive, beginning 2013, has brought down hundreds of thousands of “tigers” and “flies” – easy to understand the hierarchy among the corrupt here – it is impossible to collate how many times that particular charge has been filed.
But the few I can mention are Chinese politics’ who’s who in the last eight years – powerful politicians who led opaque but, as it turns out, ostentatious lives before their downfall.
Quoting from China’s venerable official media here — Ling Jihua, advisor to former President Hu Jintao; Bo Xilai, Chongqing CPC chief, and once tipped to become CPC Politburo standing committee (SC) member; Zhong Yongkang, former SC member and China’s security czar; Sun Zhengcai, once tipped to be SC member and for political greatness; Nur Bekri, the rare high-profile Uyghur politician who was China’s energy chief and governor of Xinjiang; China’s internet czar, Lu Wei; Sun Lijun, Beijing-based vice-minister of China’s internal security organ, the public security bureau; Yin Jiaxu, former top CPC secretary of state defence giant, Norinco Group.
This list of the dubious is endless: I could throw in names of provincial leaders including former vice-governors and CPC heads of top-tier cities like Shenzhen in south China who have also been partly punished for “trading sex for power and money”; or having mistresses or for committing adultery.
What’s missing from these conveniently public chargesheets are the stories of the women, and maybe men, who were the victims of powerful Chinese politicians.
Who are they? What are their stories? How did they come in contact with top CPC politicians like Bo and Zhou whose appearances and sanitised interactions with the public– like that of the current leaders – are carefully choreographed? What did the anonymous victims get in return in this sordid “trade”? While Chinese official media lists the sex abuse charges against those punished by the CPC, they never share the stories of these anonymous victims.
Instead, the CPC allows its controlled media and waiting-to-be censored Weibo to go after popular entertainers accused of rape, like singer-actor, Kris Wu, or China’s “piano prince, Li Yundi, detained recently for soliciting a sex worker. The charges of sexual abuse linked to poweful Chinese politicians indicate that China could be sitting on a tinderbox of #MeToo allegations. If only the victims were allowed to speak.
Closely tracking tennis star Peng’s statement is Lu Pin, a feminist activist now based in the United States (US), who founded the influential communication platform Feminist Voices in China. The platform was blocked in China on International Women’s Day in March 2018 – it is difficult to better the sense of timing.
Lu told me Peng’s testament is important because it tells us how the powerful coerce the unwilling in China.
“It is the first time that China’s top leaders’ corrupt lives have been exposed directly. In the past these corrupt lives, people only had speculation and were not allowed to understand. The women who had ‘extramarital affairs’ with these men were mentioned as symbols only after these men were defeated in the political struggle,” she told me. “No one knows what they (the victims) think or what they have experienced. Peng’s voice was the first time that women who had an ‘extramarital affair’ with these leaders spoke out, and she also told the public for the first time that it was not a normal ‘extramarital affairs but sexual violence.”
Tennis star Peng’s post was censored but not before it had made its mark online within and outside China. Lu believes Peng’s post will encourage more victims to talk about their experiences, giving renewed impetus to China’s faltering #MeToo movement.
In September, for example, a Beijing court dismissed a high-profile sexual harassment case levelled by a woman intern against a top television host, saying there was insufficient evidence to support her claims. (The judiciary in China answers to the CPC.)
The allegations of groping and kissing levelled by Zhou Xiaoxuan, an intern, against Zhu Jun, anchor with national broadcaster, CCTV, was at the centre of China’s #MeToo movement in 2018. “Peng’s remarks made people realise how sexual violence is deeply integrated into China’s power structure. Of course, I believe that more victims will be encouraged,” Lu said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has all but dismissed Peng’s post on her unequal relationship with Zhang Gaoli. Expected. The game isn’t over though.
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