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

Crime

Mandy Zuoin Shanghai

Published: 6:30pm, 2 Mar 2022

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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.

The investigation comes amid the backdrop of a case last month in which a woman in Jiangsu province in eastern China was found chained by her neck in a hut.

The Jiangsu woman is mentally ill and had given birth to eight children. Her plight outraged China, fuelled by inconsistent messaging from officials about whether she was a human trafficking victim.

Five investigations have been launched into the Jiangsu case under public pressure, and the case is still a nationwide talking point. The Jiangsu provincial government said it had either fired or punished 17 officials for their initial mishandling of the case.

China’s Ministry of Public Security announced on Tuesday that it would launch a year-long national campaign to crack down on human trafficking amid the fury caused the case.

The case of a mentally disabled woman who was chained by her husband outraged China. Photo: Weibo

In the current investigation, Li is further accused of of taking Tang home after finding her on the side of a road in 2009.

Li is said to have bragged on Kuaishou that he had two children with her, a boy who he has been raising and a girl who he sold to a neighbouring village at birth for 30,000 yuan (US$4,753).

Tang tried to escape several times over the years, and Li said he often beat or confined her, which some suspected had caused Tang’s apparent mental disorder.

The case is part of a larger conversation in China about the legitimacy of marriages involving mentally disabled people. In March 2021, a Chinese man was barred from marrying a mentally disabled woman but was allowed to live with her.