gisw13_chapters

BBS run by Shaanxi province’s China Business News( 华 商 报 ) posted a description of the incident alongsidetwo pictures of Feng and the aborted foetuson a hospital bed. The post included Deng’s mobilephone number and an official response released bythe Zhenping County Family Planning Bureau, whichclaimed it had acted in accordance with the law.Deng also posted about the incident on his verifiedSina Weibo account on 11 June, though he didnot post an image containing uncensored picturesof Feng and the foetus until 13 June. The latter wasre-published by other users 1,650 times. Anotherpost that day with essentially the same content wasre-published 6,580 times and received 4,243 comments.As the image went viral, commercial Chinesemedia began picking up the story. The Wall StreetJournal reported that the issue was among the mostforwarded on Sina Weibo that week and that thephrase “seven-months pregnant forced abortion”was the most popular search term on 15 June accordingto data from the University of Hong Kong.That day, the website China Digital Timesreleased a leaked directive from the Central PropagandaDepartment instructing media outlets torefrain from independent reportage or opinion columnson the incident and requiring them to use onlyreports from the Xinhua state news service, but theonline furore continued. On 25 June, after givingan interview to a German news organisation, Dengposted a picture on weibo of “protestors” he saidhad been hired by the local township governmentholding up banners calling him and Feng traitors.The post was re-published by other users over5,000 times.That day, state-run paper The Global Times ranan opinion piece under the headline “Policy mustreflect generation changes”, and the next daylawyer Zhang Kai wrote on commercial media siteCaixin that the local government’s actions, whichprompted Deng and Feng to accept an out-of-courtsettlement, had squandered an opportunity for reformthrough rule of law by giving the issue its dayin court. A 27 June Xinhua report announced thatofficials had been punished for the forced abortionfollowing an investigation by the Ankang city government– though it made only slight mention of thegraphic images online and said nothing of weibo.On 11 July, in a story mentioning neither weibo northe internet, the final word came down throughanother Xinhua story with the headline “Familycompensated for forced abortion, case ‘settled’”.A Chinese media report in February 2013 showedthat Feng was still suffering from after-effects ofthe forced abortion and that the local governmenthad not covered her medical bills as promised. Italso found that Deng, working sans contract ata government-arranged job for a concrete plant,would no longer speak with the media for fear ofrepercussions.Case 2: Domestic violence and Kim LeeOn 31 August 2011, the Sina Weibo user “Li NaHua’s Mom” responded to a post by the founderof the wildly successful Crazy English 2 languageprogramme, Li Yang. Li exhorted his millions of followersto “love losing face” by making mistakeswhile learning English. “Li Na Hua’s Mom” respondedin Chinese: “I love losing face = I love hitting mywife’s face?” and attached a picture of a woman’sforehead covered in bruises and welts. The accountpublished more photos of the woman’s bruised andbloody body over the next few days. It quickly becameclear that the user was Li’s wife Kim Lee, a UScitizen. The account name was a reference to thecouple’s three young daughters.Domestic violence is endemic in China, normallygoes unmentioned in public, and is widely acceptedas part of married life by many women on themainland. A 2011 survey by the All China Women’sFederation, a state-controlled NGO, found thatone in four women had been victims of domesticviolence. A gender-based violence survey by TianjinNormal University made public in May 2013 foundthat half of Chinese men reported physically or sexuallyabusing their partners.Indeed, initial reactions in the media tended tofocus on the scandal of a celebrity’s wife divulgingsuch private matters to the public at large. Kim Lee’shandling of the situation would change that.The pictures quickly went viral, spurring cacophonousdebate. A picture of Lee’s bloody ear,posted on 4 September 2011, was re-posted byother users over 24,000 times and received over10,000 comments. While some users criticised Leefor not suffering silently, others offered encouragement,gratitude, or related their own trauma. Leecontinued to post about her experiences while herhusband refused to respond publicly or to comewith her to a local police station to face charges –though he continued to make media appearancespromoting Crazy English.On 9 September, state-run English newspaperChina Daily ran a story on legislation beingdrafted to combat domestic violence, though itgave no details about its contents or when it mightbe passed. China lacks a national law against2 www.bjcrazyenglish.com/94 / Global Information Society Watch