Xuzhou chained woman incident

The video of a mentally disturbed[1] and unlawfully imprisoned woman who was chained to a wall and who gave birth to eight children went viral on China's internet and sparked a huge public outcry.

[3][4] In the 1980s, as the relaxation of the dual urban-rural household registration system after the Opening Up and Reform Policies loosened restrictions on population movement and rural residents gained access to tradable currency in the shift towards a market economy, human trafficking gradually proliferated across mainland China.

[15] On February 7, 2022, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee of Xuzhou and its municipal government issued a statement, saying that Yang originally came from Fugong County, Yunnan, and got divorced in 1996.

[17] The investigation found the true identity of the woman as Xiao Huamei from Yagu Village (亚谷村), Zilijia Township, Fugong County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, western Yunnan Province, southwest China (bordering Myanmar's Kachin State to the west), and confirmed that she was a victim of multiple human trafficking crimes and released a detailed timeline.

The police have detained six people and fired eight lower-level Communist Party officials during the investigation, for various reasons including failing to protect the public's interest and publishing false information.

[19] The incident has been reported by a number of media outlets outside of China, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, and Deutsche Welle.

[20] The event is particular in that it unfolded during the already controversial 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, with people demanding answers despite the increasingly censored and politically sensitive space of Chinese internet.

[22] Mo Shaoping, a Chinese lawyer who previously represented Liu Xiaobo, said that if Yang was mentally ill, a rape investigation against Dong should also be conducted.