HONG KONG (AP) — A female PhD student at one of China’s top universities took social media by storm after she accused her academic supervisor of sexual harassment and said he threatened to stop her from pursuing her doctorate because she refused his advances. Her school said Monday it had launched an investigation.
The woman, who identified herself as Wang Di and said she was studying at Renmin University of China’s School of Liberal Arts, posted a 59-minute video on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Sunday in which she briefly held up an identity card and described being abused.
Wearing a mask, she alleged that the professor, a former vice dean and former Communist Party representative at the school, had physically and verbally abused her. She also said that he had given her many unpaid tasks for more than two years, called her names and threatened that she would not graduate after she rejected him.
Wang Di shared a screenshot of messages between her and the said professor in which he asked to meet at his office on May 21, 2022, for a conversation. She also uploaded some audio clips that she claimed were evidence of the harassment. In one of them, a man could be heard trying to kiss a woman who kept saying, “No, no, teacher.”
“At this point I can’t take it anymore and I have no place to retreat, so I’m speaking out,” she wrote. Her post had attracted 1.73 million likes as of Monday afternoon, with many users leaving comments in support of the student who demanded that the professor be legally punished and a new supervisor be appointed for her. She also said she was prepared to be held legally accountable for her accusations against the professor.
The Associated Press news agency could not independently verify the recordings and Wang’s claim.
Renmin University said Monday it was taking the online complaint seriously and had set up a task force to investigate the allegations. The university has zero tolerance for ethical misconduct by faculty members and promised to release the results of its investigation within days.
The professor has not yet responded to AP’s request for comment.
In China, public accusations of sexual harassment have become rare in recent years after a brief resurgence amid the #MeToo movement, which was quickly suppressed by the government. China’s ruling Communist Party sees powerful social movements as a potential threat to its stability and grip on power.
In June, a Chinese journalist who promoted women’s rights as part of the emerging #MeToo movement sentenced to five years is in prison, according to her supporters, on charges of inciting undermining state authority.
In one of the most notable cases, former Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai also disappeared from the public eye after accusing former senior official Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault in 2021. Her accusation was quickly removed from the internet and discussion about it remains heavily censored.
