Public anger over case of son of general accused of rape
Latest case of scion of party cadre acting as if he was above law, a general's son accused of being involved in attack on girl in Beijing hotel
Public anger continues to swell over a high-profile incident involving a 17-year-old son of an army general who is accused of participating in a gang rape in Beijing, in the latest example of a child of privilege acting as if he was above the law.
Four of the five detained suspects, who are accused of raping a young woman on February 17, are minors, the Beijing Morning Post reported yesterday. This includes Li Guanfeng, son of Li Shuangjiang, a senior official in the People's Liberation Army who is famous for singing patriotic songs at public events and enjoys a non-commanding rank equivalent to major general.
According to the newspaper, the five suspects - one aged 24 and the others aged 16 or 17 - are suspected of bringing a young, drunk woman from a bar to the Hubei Hotel in Beijing and raping her. The woman was reportedly beaten violently.
By yesterday afternoon, more than six million internet users had made microblog comments about the case, with many saying the younger Li's alleged actions were villainous and served as the latest example of debauchery among children of China's party cadres.
And this wasn't Li Guanfeng's first brush with the law. In 2011, at the age of 15, he was sentenced to a year in a youth reformation centre for driving a souped-up BMW without a licence and assaulting a couple near his Beijing home while shouting: "Who dares call the police?"
"It was Li this time, and next time it will be another child of a high-ranking official," said one internet user, going by the name "Half-Rainbow Knight". "Their fathers' privilege endows them with the courage and ability to commit misdeeds."