Chinese aghast as video appears to show man beating his wife to death in street as onlookers watch

It is not the first time that drivers and pedestrians have failed to intervene in an emergency

Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images

Footage that appears to show a man in China beating his wife to death while bystanders watch is circulating online, prompting public outrage.

In videos posted online, the man can be seen repeatedly hitting someone lying on the ground on the side of a street. Onlookers, including children, pedestrians and drivers, watch the attack without intervening. 

Police have since issued a statement saying a suspect is in custody and that the case is under investigation. 

“He only held a rock in his hand – why were people afraid to come out to stop him?” posted one person online. “He was not holding a knife or a gun! I would have used whatever I could to confront him if I saw this.” 

The issue of domestic violence is often overlooked in China and was only criminalised in 2015. Many Chinese continue to see it as a private problem to be resolved at home, with shame or stigma attached to going public about domestic problems.

But rights groups say the country’s culture of silence allows such abuse to continue.

Every 7.4 seconds a woman in China is beaten by her husband, according to the All China Women’s Federation. The group estimates that about one-third of women in China’s 270 million households have experienced domestic violence. 

In 2011, an American woman, Kim Lee, went public about being abused by her Chinese husband, Li Yang, after police tried to turn her away and discourage her from filing a report.

She published photos of her bruised and injured face from one assault – a move that rippled through the country as the pair were well-known for their popular English education business.

In the end, she was granted a divorce on grounds of domestic violence in 2013, along with a restraining order against her ex-husband.

While it was a landmark case for China, change has been slow to come.

“It is already a horrible thing that a crowd of people watched a person get beaten to death,” wrote one person online. “What’s even more horrible is that some people think this is normal.”

This isn’t the first time bystanders in China have been criticised for failing to help those in trouble. When a toddler was hit by a car in 2011, for example, cameras showed at least 18 people passing her without stopping to help. Later, a second car hit and killed her. 

Experts have argued that China’s history of turmoil – marked with famine and then the Cultural Revolution – pitted even the closest family members against each other, destroying trust in society. 

Academics, including Lingwei Wu of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, have researched how the Cultural Revolution, which “incentivised people to snitch on each other to signal loyalty to the [Communist] Party” eroded trust – especially for those who were coming of age during that period. 

Building on that is ongoing propaganda suggesting that absolute loyalty and trust must be placed in the ruling party – even at the expense of fellow citizens.