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Students at a martial arts school in Henan display welts on the backs of their legs inflicted by their teachers. Violence against children, by parents or teachers, is a growing area of public concern in China. Photo: Weibo

Stepmum attacks child; dad ‘teaches’ unruly girl in new cases of abuse

ELLIS LIANG

Two recent incidents highlight how some mainland Chinese parents take discipline too far, ultimately harming their children.

In Foshan, Guangdong province, a 20-something stepmother admitted to beating her husband’s six-year-old son with a plastic pipe, sending the boy to the hospital with a haemorrhage, the Southern Metropolis News reports.

“I’m hot-tempered and irritable. He’s not my own child,” she told reporters on Tuesday. She added that the boy, from her husband’s first marriage, was not naughty but was too old to keep soiling his pants.

The boy’s injuries were discovered on Friday, when the stepmother took him to visit his grandparents, who noticed bruises around the boy’s eyes and head.

When the boy said his stepmother had caused the injuries, she initially said it had been other children. The grandparents alerted the police. An investigation is under way.

In Yichang, Hubei province, a father left his 10-year-old daughter in a cemetery at midnight to teach her a lesson after she played with fire, China News Service reports.

On Friday night, an elderly woman who lived near the cemetery heard a cry: “Save me!”

The woman and her husband spotted the young girl and when they brought her into their house, she said: “Daddy doesn’t want me.” The couple alerted police.

The father later explained to authorities that the girl had taken her younger brother outside to play with fire. The father later told reporters that his daughter never listened to him, and he wanted to teach her a lesson. The father admitted his behaviour was not appropriate.

 

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