Deng Yujiao, A New Kind Of Chinese Heroine

21 year-old Deng Yujiao is a heroine in China. She has become a symbol of the Chinese people's true feelings about their corrupt government. She killed a Communist party official who demanded sex from her.

Deng Yujiao, pedicurist at a hotel in Badong, was doing wash in the laundry room of the hotel where she worked when local party official Deng Guida entered the room and demanded "special services," which in China means sexual services. She refused. Another official entered the room and together the officials molested her, tried to lay her down on a sofa, and slapped her with money threatening to beat her to death. She then stabbed Deng Guida and wounded the other man, either with a work tool or a fruit knife. (It is not known whether the fruit knife story was invented by the party so that her act would seem premeditated). She immediately called the police and turned herself in.

Deng Yujiao was taken to a mental hospital. She was depicted by the government as suffering from depression. But netizens in China didn't believe the official version of the facts - that being mentally ill, she had simply lost control of herself during an argument. Deng Yujiao's case began to cause such an uproar on the internet in China that she was then permitted to await her trail at home.

A public letter appeared on the internet which referred to Deng as a heroine and asked people to write to her in support. Defended fiercely by citizens, academics, lawyers, and women's groups, it was feared she would become a symbol for the public's growing contempt for party officials. Media coverage of her case was banned on the eve of the Tiananmen Square anniversary. Censors attempted to ban incendiary comments but over four million posts appeared. Local officials restricted television coverage. Travel into the town where the incident took place was restricted.

This is not the first time that netizens have defended citizens who have been persecuted by the government. Last year a scandal in Guizhou province was publicized on the internet after a high school girl, suspected of having been a victim of rape, was suspiciously murdered. Then Yang Jia, wrongly accused and mistreated by police regarding his ownership of a bicycle, stabbed six officers to death in a police station in Shanghai. He was executed by the state. Early this year, there was an online exposé of the cover-up of a prison inmate who was beaten to death. In some cases, the internet community has posted personal information of officials suspected of corruption online in order to open them up to harassment.

At present the online community is protesting officials in Yunnan Province who decided to battle a rabies outbreak by sending out "killing teams" which beat 50,000 dogs to death.

Deng Yujiao was found guilty of causing injury with intent though in self-defense (she had been originally charged with murder) but was freed based on a forensic assessment that she had developed a "manic-depressive reaction which deprives her of full capability of taking legal responsibilities." The fact that she turned herself in was also considered. The two attackers were fired but faced no charges.

Many celebrated her release as a victory for public opinion. Deng Yujiao thanked the public for their support. However, she had been declared guilty. "What was the evidence of guilt? She is not guilty, what she did was 100 percent self-defense," one blogger wrote. Another wrote, "The people's rights have been seriously trampled on. If today we cannot safeguard the rights of the woman, tomorrow when other officials trample on the dignity and the lives of women, what can we do to protect them, what means do we have for fighting?"

According to Ai Weiwei, artist and activist, the court's ruling was unfair. He explained, "On the one hand, in the face of public pressure, they know they can't punish her because that will cause unrest. On the other hand, they want to reaffirm the authority of the law and they don't want to be laughed at."

One comment read: "Our sister was found guilty in the end, and all of us are still people without any rights."

In downtown Beijing, a group of young people laid a woman wrapped up in white cloth and wearing a mask on the ground. They arranged signs around her that read "Anyone could be Deng Yujiao."

Sources:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0616/p90s01-woap.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6513750.ece
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/deng-yujiao/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/17/china-netizens-stand-with-the-waitress-who-killed-an-official/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/waitress-walks-free-in-case-that-gripped-china-1706938.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/asia/17china.html?hp
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/16/content_8290133.htm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hK1BEPY25OVJXylsnY4CRaNDMc_gD98RSJU02

Defend Human Rights - Boycott Chinese products