Controversy escalated this week over a news report about the alleged rape of the daughter of a former Guizhou deputy mayor, as the official People's Daily condemned the report as 'untrue', sparking a retort from the alleged rape victim's family.
The alleged victim sent a fax on Thursday to Hong Kong's Phoenix Weekly magazine, saying: 'The party's newspaper is not paparazzi. Why didn't it protect the victim's privacy? It was the first one to spell out my name.'
She wrote: 'Whether the rape took place should be a legal matter. Was People's Daily's high-profile conclusion on the case an attempt to try to influence the investigation?'
The saga began with a report in Phoenix Weekly on July 6 of the alleged rape in January 2009 by Zhou Shili, then a senior member of the Guizhou provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
The report said the alleged victim had been reporting the incident to police and petitioning the government for two years, yet Zhou, who the woman alleges told her he had strong and extensive connections in Guizhou, remained untouched.
The magazine said the woman's father, Tian Wanchang, a former deputy mayor of Liupanshui city in charge of public security affairs, had petitioned in Beijing since January last year for his daughter's cause to be heard.
In subsequent interviews with other media, Zhou, who is married, denied raping the woman but said they were having an affair.