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Maggie Zhang

A local lawmaker in northeastern China’s Inner Mongolia was arrested for allegedly raping four middle schoolgirls after the case came to light when one victim considered attempting suicide, mainland media reported.
Shi Xuehe, 52, a businessman and member of the Manzhouli municipal People’s Congress in the vast autonomous region, was arrested for the alleged rapes of the schoolgirls aged 13 and 14 on multiple occasions, The Beijing News reported on Saturday.
Hainan school principal, official reportedly to be charged with rapes of schoolgirls
Five women were also arrested for procuring schoolgirls for prostitution. Among them is a 17-year-old high school pupil who is studying at another school in the city, who beats the victims if they refuse to have sex with the men. The other four are adults.
Shi’s family tried to persuade the victim’s family to drop the charge by offering them 600,000 yuan (HK$720,000), which they refused.
He was also found to indirectly own a hotel where the assaults took place.

Shi, a local construction and engineering company boss, resigned from his lawmaker post on June 24.
Two other men, a 34-year-old local customs officer, and a 42-year-old from the local branch of Bank of China were both on bail due to lack of evidence to be formally arrested for rape, the report said, quoting the local prosecutor.
The case was exposed in May after a classmate of one 13-year-old victim told teachers that the victim wanted to buy sleeping pills to commit suicide. The victim then confessed she has already been sexually assaulted by three men on six occasions in two months.
Former school principal arrested over rape and killing of six-year-old girl in China
The school then reported the case to local police. Teachers and parents also found a suicide note in her schoolbag.
The victim was once beaten to the ground after the woman gang member slapped her face and kicked her belly for five minutes.
Another girl was forced to witness the bullying as a deterrent to running away from the 17-year-old.
Two other victims also participated the bullying as they were threatened with violence if they didn’t follow orders.
The four victims said they felt too ashamed to report the assaults to parents or teachers.
The case has reignited calls for greater protection of juveniles from sexual abuse and to introduce proper sexual education in schools to raise public awareness of the problem.
“When minors are sexually assaulted, most victims are unprepared and don’t know who to turn to speak about their anguish,” said Ai Xiaoming, a retired professor from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and an activist for women rights.
“In school, sex education is inadequate as it only covers the subject of physiology, but never offers information on how minors can protect themselves from sexual assault.”
Society in general needed to be more aware of the issue as well, Ai said.
‘Only one in seven’ child sex abuse cases are reported in China ... and teachers are among the worst offenders
Mainland media have reported nearly 1,000 cases of sexual abuse in the past few years but experts agree that the real number is at least seven times as large.
Mainland media reported 968 cases of child sex abuse from 2013 to 2015, according to the “China child sex abuse investigation report” released in June by Girls Protection, a non-profit organisation started by women journalists in the mainland to raise awareness of the issue.
Wang Dawei, a criminal psychologist at the People’s Public Security University of China, told Xinhua that child sexual abuse cases were underreported, with only one in seven cases of primary or secondary school-aged victims coming forward.
In 2015, two men were found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl in a landmark case at a court in Qionglai city in Sichuan province. The ruling then was the first of its kind since the end of 2013, when the supreme court abolished the lesser offence of procuring under-age girls for prostitution.


Lawmaker in China’s Inner Mongolia arrested for raping schoolgirls aged 13 and 14

One of the victims being forced into prostitution in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia, sitting in her bedroom. Photo: The Beijing News

Suicide note wrote to her parents and relatives by one of the victims in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia. Photo: The Beijing News

Medical report of one of the victims, who is 13-year-old, saying she has serious mental problems after being forced into prostitution. Photo: The Beijing News

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China

Four girls, one of whom later considered committing suicide, were beaten by older women if they refused to have sex with clients


Breaking | Lawmaker in China’s Inner Mongolia arrested for raping schoolgirls aged 13 and 14

Four girls, one of whom later considered committing suicide, were beaten by older women if they refused to have sex with clients

Hainan school principal, official reportedly to be charged with rapes of schoolgirls