Opinion | Sex pests on the subway: China is finally cracking down, thanks to its brave women
Lijia Zhang welcomes the Beijing authorities’ crackdown on gropers on the city’s busy metro – four years after five women were arrested for calling attention to the same problem. The change in the government’s attitude should be attributed to the work of these activists and the #MeToo movement
On a cold spring night in March 2015, a few hours before International Women Day, Li Maizi, a young feminist, was arrested at home by police officers who took her to a detention centre. There, she and four other feminists were kept behind bars for 37 days. Their crime: planning to hand out fliers to bring attention to sexual harassment on public transport.
Contrary to the official claims, sexual harassment is prevalent in mainland China. One study conducted by two City University of Hong Kong professors revealed that 80 per cent of working women have encountered sexual harassment at least once.
And the public transport system is infested with many gropers, nicknamed “salty pig hands”, who take advantage of the often crowded space to assault women. In another survey, of 2,023 people conducted by China Youth Daily in 2017, 53.5 per cent of female respondents said they, or someone they knew, had experienced sexual harassment on the subway.
