Chinese prosecutors announced on Monday that they had filed charges against 28 people suspected of beating a group of women in a viral incident that generated concern about gender-based violence in the nation.
The topic of violence against women in China has come up again after video of a group of men attacking four women at a BBQ restaurant in Tangshan, east of the capital Beijing, went viral online.
The video shows that the males assaulted the women after they turned down their advances.
After gathering "reliable and substantial" evidence, Hebei province prosecutors announced they would file charges against the individuals, including seven who were personally involved in the assault.
The statement, shared on China’s Twitter-like Weibo service, did not specify a criminal charge.
Police identified the prime suspect in the attack as “Chen”, saying he “recklessly used violence to commit evil”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Following the attack, Tangshan authorities sacked the city’s deputy police chief and five other police officers and also launched a crackdown against organized crime.
Discussion of feminism has grown in the country despite pressure from its patriarchal society, widespread censorship, and patchy legal support for victims.
But viral online essays slamming the attack as symbolic of the country’s larger problem of gender-based violence were censored.
Two women were hospitalised following the incident and two others sustained minor injuries, authorities said.
Women’s rights campaigners say domestic abuse remains pervasive and under-reported in China, while prominent feminists also face regular police harassment and detention.
Local journalists who travelled to Tangshan to seek information about the victims were harassed, intimidated, and even detained, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
In early August, a Tangshan man allegedly killed his girlfriend by repeatedly running her over with his car in broad daylight.
Surveillance footage of the incident sparked widespread outrage online before being censored.