State media ridiculed for claim women are never harassed in Chinese culture
Attempt by China’s state media to gloat over Harvey Weinstein sex abuse and harassment scandal backfires
An attempt by Chinese state media to crow over the Harvey Weinstein case has prompted an outpouring of ridicule and anger.
It is common for Chinese media to highlight problems in the United States in an implicit or explicit attempt to argue that Chinese society under Communist Party rule is more “harmonious” than Western democracy, or to counter Western criticism of China’s human rights record.
But China Daily may have overstepped the mark when it ran an opinion piece by Sava Hassan, a “Canadian Egyptian educator,” entitled: “What prevents sexual harassment from being a common phenomenon in China, as it’s in most Western societies?”
The piece argued that Chinese men “are taught to be protective of their women.”
“Behaving inappropriately toward women, including harassing them sexually, contradicts every Chinese traditional value and custom,” the author wrote. “Chinese authority deals harshly with those who disrespect themselves by behaving inappropriately toward others.”
