Opinion | Attempt to cover up Sharon Lam’s attempted rape should silence #MeToo’s critics forever
Alice Wu says the way that both mainland police and Hainan Airlines tried to help a Hong Kong film director’s attempted rapist dodge legal consequences shows the extent authorities will go to harass victims of sexual assault into silence
Backlash against the #MeToo Movement wasn’t surprising. Despite the many reports of abuse and the reasons given to explain the low reporting and conviction rates, there are many who continue to hold blind and absolute faith in due process – in the law enforcement agencies and judiciary system – to deliver justice. And this is often used as an excuse to further silence, harass and hurt victims.
Less than two weeks ago, Lam, who was working on a project in Hainan, was attacked by a Hainan Airlines trainee pilot. Her attacker climbed across an 18th floor balcony of the hotel she was staying at, broke into her room, pinned her down, groped her and tried to rape her. Lam narrowly escaped by managing to fight the man off and chase him out of her room.
Lam’s ordeal did not end there. On the same day, Lam reported what she had encountered to the police, only to be met with officers telling her to settle with her attacker as she was not familiar with mainland Chinese law. As if the pain of suffering an attack wasn’t enough, an enforcer of the law tried to gaslight Lam into silence and rationalise away her violent encounter. The indignity of what Lam went through is enough to make clear why victims do not report their ordeals to the police.
But in case one remains unconvinced, consider what Lam had to deal with a few days later when she returned to the police station to file an official police report. She was met by a representative of Hainan Airlines, her attacker’s employer, at the station and was “advised” against pursing the case as “the cost of training a pilot was very high”.