By Cai Siyun
Recently, a school bullying incident in Jiangyou city, Sichuan Province has incited widespread public outrage due to inaction on the part of the local authorities in regard to the case, which saw a 14-year-old girl brutalized and robbed by classmates over a length of time.
Citizens took to the streets demanding answers and accountability, only to be met with violent suppression by the People’s Armed Police. Clashes between police and civilians were heated, with some sources from Jiangyou suggesting that several hundred protesters may have been arrested.
On Aug. 3, inside an unfinished building in Jiangyou, a 14-year-old girl was forced to strip, verbally abused, and beaten by a group of other girls, at least one of whom is alleged to be the daughter of a powerful local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official. Some online rumors also claimed that the mother of the main perpetrator is the deputy police chief of the Jiangyou public security bureau (PSB).
The bullies even uploaded a video of the abuse online, causing a public outcry. Afterwards, the girl went missing and remains unaccounted for at the time of writing.
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According to local sources, including a poster claiming to be the victim’s cousin, the girl was frequently bullied because her mother is deaf and mute. However, due to their being minors, the perpetrators were taken to a police station but were released shortly after without punishment. Despite repeated urging from the victim’s family, including kowtowing before the police, the authorities ignored the matter.
Public outcry
Under intense public pressure, local police issued a statement on Aug. 4 saying the victim only suffered “minor injuries” and that two of the attackers had been given “administrative penalties.” The others were only given “criticism and education.”
The government’s passive response triggered strong public dissatisfaction. That day, large crowds gathered before the police station in Jiangyou, and in the evening, demonstrators filled major intersections in the city of around 700,000 to demand justice for the victim.
Some posts and footage spread on social media suggests that the girl’s parents knelt before school officials and reported the crime to police, only to be sent away from the station.
Meanwhile, one of the bullies allegedly bragged, “I’ve been to the police station over ten times, and each time I’m out in twenty minutes.” Online rumors suggest that the bully’s father is a high-ranking official in the Jiangyou municipal Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC).
PLACs, existing from the central to local levels, are a Communist Party organization that oversees China’s police, prosecutors, and courts, ensuring CCP control over the country’s judicial system.
Protesters gathering spontaneously on the streets broke through police roadblocks set up ahead of time chanted slogans as “the child deserves the truth,” “punish the bullies severely,” and “handle the case according to law.” They called for a full investigation, accountability for the negligence, and government transparency.
By early morning, police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, sprayed pepper spray, and violently arrested and removed protesters. Videos circulating online show several officers beating protestors, while some demonstrators chanted, “Xi Jinping step down! CCP step down!”
Though the protest was dispersed by riot police, demonstrators quickly regrouped elsewhere, continuing to chant. They threw rocks, water bottles, and other objects at police and tried to rescue detained individuals from police custody.
Some protesters sang lines from the Chinese national anthem: “brave the enemy’s gunfire, march on!”
Additionally, some internet users observed military signal-jamming vehicles entering the city, sparking speculation that the authorities were blocking communications to prevent further news of the event from spreading. Many claimed that local cellular signals became unstable during the protests.
Censorship and commentary
A Chinese-language account on X named “Opposition Party” commented: “This is a tragedy that exposes the failure to protect minors and a humiliation of the powerless by the powerful. We must not remain silent, and we must not retreat.”
Other Chinese netizens, circumventing the CCP’s “Great Firewall” to access the foreign internet, posted about the speed with which the authorities had moved to suppress information about the events in Jiangyou.
“Information is being blocked inside the wall faster than ever,” a Chinese YouTube user wrote in a comment. “I’m online all day and didn’t see any of this. If I hadn’t come here, I’d have no idea what happened.”
Others remarked that videos from Jiangyou were rapidly scrubbed from Douyin, the mainland Chinese version of TikTok.
“Support the people of Sichuan! Long live the people!” another said, while other posts expressed solidarity from other provinces of China.
Some wrote that the incident managed to gain broad traction among the people of Jiangyou not just because of the abuses met with by the teen girl and her family, but because her plight reflects the deeper systemic issues caused by the CCP’s rule and the helplessness ordinary Chinese feel in the face of power.
“Those who go against the people never come to a good end,” one post warns.
