1 hour ago
picture description,
A screenshot from the video shows the woman with a chain around her neck
A Chinese court has jailed five people in a high-profile human trafficking case in which a woman was found chained in a remote village last year.
The case shocked the country and led to a crackdown on the bride trade.
The woman’s husband was sentenced to nine years in prison for torture, ill-treatment and imprisonment. Four traffickers received prison sentences ranging from eight to 13 years.
But many responding to the verdict on Friday said the penalties were too light and reforms were lacking.
Xiaohuamei’s plight became public in January 2022, when a Chinese vlogger found her with an iron chain around her neck in a dirt-floored hut outside her family home in the village in Xuzhou province.
The video by the Fengxian County vlogger went viral. In it, he raised concerns about human trafficking, noting that Xiaohuamei, in her 40s, reportedly had eight children and appeared “dazed” and mentally disabled.
The case caught the attention of the Chinese public, many of whom fought relentlessly online for justice for the woman.
Initially, local city authorities dismissed human trafficking concerns, saying the couple had a valid marriage license and they only had marital problems. Authorities also reiterated her husband Dong Zhimin’s defense that he detained Xiaohuamei because she suffers from schizophrenia and is prone to violent seizures.
Such statements, however, only led to public outrage. It compounded criticism voiced by many online that the authorities had ignored the treatment of the woman and possibly other trafficking victims.
This led to a criminal investigation and police pledges to crack down on the trafficking of women and children.
Many details of the case were confirmed for the first time during the trial this week.
Findings of the Court
The court found that Xiaohuamei was abducted from her home province of Yunnan as a teenager in 1998 and sold to a farmer in Donghai province for 5,000 yuan — around £360 or $600 at the time.
A year later, she was again sold to other traffickers, this time to a couple who arranged her sale to Dong’s father.
The judges said that when Xiaohuamei first arrived at Dong’s home, she was “basically able to take care of herself and communicate with others.”
The court found Dong guilty of torturing and abusing his wife. He forced Xiaohuamei to have children – the first in 1999 and then seven more from 2011 to 2020.
After her third child, Xiao’s schizophrenia worsened. In response, dong has become more and more abusive, said the Intermediate People’s Court of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province.
In 2017, he took her from the family home to the outside cabin, where he kept her tied up with cloth ropes and chains. The hut had no water, electricity or light and was often denied food.
Yao Hui, the presiding judge, said Dong never took his wife to the doctors when she was sick and repeatedly made her pregnant regardless of her condition.
On Friday, news of the verdicts shot to the top of social media platform Weibo, where it received over 100 million hits within the hour of the verdict being announced.
The majority of users expressed anger and disappointment at the verdicts. “Just that much for ruining someone’s life?” wrote one user.
Comments from others included “it’s her whole life but only nine years for him” and “nine years isn’t enough time for her to give birth eight times”.
However, others pointed out that penalties for trafficking crimes are usually limited to 10 years.
Activists had been pushing for law reform last year, arguing that such lenient penalties would not deter the bridal market from traffickers and buyers.
“Change the law, the verdict is too lenient,” wrote one user in Friday’s online discussion.
Some also asked about Xiaohuamei’s current condition. She was removed from her village last year after her case became known and taken to an infirmary where she remains, Chinese media said.
Additional reporting by Fan Wang