Police in China investigate claims man kept mentally disabled wife in a cage and bragged about it

The man is accused of bragging about severe mental and physical abuse on the TikTok-like app Kuaishou

The case comes as China was shocked by a separate case of a woman who was chained in a hut by her husband

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Police are investigating accusations that a woman (right) was held captive by her husband (left). Photo: Weixin

Published: 6:30pm, 2 Mar 2022Updated: 4:29pm, 7 Apr 2022

Police in Shaanxi province in northwest China are investigating allegations that a farmer forced a homeless woman into marriage and held her against her will, including locking her in an iron cage.

According to a statement from a local public security bureau on Tuesday, authorities are looking into the case after a WeChat post claimed the woman, named Tang Xiaoyu, was the victim of extreme mental and physical abuse.

An anonymous concerned citizen published a WeChat post about the husband, Li Limin, after Li shared information about how he treated Tang on the Chinese TikTok-like app Kuaishou.

The Kuaishou videos have been deleted and could not be independently verified by the South China Morning Post. A search of Li’s Kuaishou account on Wednesday suggested it had been banned, but it had nearly 780,000 followers before it was shut down.

There was speculation that Tang Xiaoyu was actually Wang Guohong [pictured], who went missing in 2009 . Photo: Weixin

The WeChat post attached screenshots of several of Li’s live-stream sessions in which Tang appeared to have ligature marks on her legs and burns on her feet.

The author cited a witness who said Li locked Tang in a cage on the back of his motorised tricycle and took her with him when he needed to leave his home.