Kris Wu rape case

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Kris Wu sex scandal
Wu in 2017
DateJuly 8, 2021 (2021-07-08)
Location People's Republic of China
TypeSex scandal
TargetDu Meizhu[a] and other female victims
Outcome
  • Wu's arrest, conviction, and sentencing to 13 years imprisonment
  • Losses of sponsorhips for Wu
  • Removal of Wu's works and social media accounts from the Chinese market
  • Deportation expected after prison sentence completion

The Kris Wu rape case is a sex-crime case involving Chinese-Canadian rapper and actor Kris Wu. Du Meizhu, a 19-year-old Chinese woman, released a post on her Weibo account on July 8, 2021, accusing him of raping her and more than 30 other young women and girls (including two minors).[1][2][3]

Wu denied all accusations but lost sponsorships, had his social media accounts and music removed from Chinese platforms.[3] He was then convicted of raping "three drunken women" between the months of November and December of 2020, resulting in him being sentenced to 13 years in prison.[4][5]

People involved

Allegations

On July 8, 2021, 19-year-old university student Du Meizhu accused Wu of sexual misconduct on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. In her allegation, she states that she was in a relationship with Wu, and he raped her after forcing her to drink alcohol. She said that she was 17 at the time of the assault.[7] Alongside her post, she also included pictures and message screenshots to back up her claim after receiving threats from Wu's fans.[8] When Du made her allegations, the police initially discredited her as a fame-seeker.[9]

Following the incident, Du claimed that she was paid hush money by Wu's agency but finally got the courage to speak out two years later.[10] Du also included in another post that there were more instances of Wu getting women drunk and then raping them. She later said that she wasn't the first or last victim after more women (including two minors) had reached out to her to share similar experiences of being lured by Wu.[11][7]

On August 8, 2021, one alleged underage rape victim from Los Angeles shared her story, which started with her attending one of Wu's drinking parties. She told her lawyer Jing Wang that:

"It's an open secret that he [Wu] selects concubines among international students".

She said she saw this first-hand when Wu's assistant invited her to a gathering. She stated that before the girls could enter the venue, they had to turn in their phones to prevent photos and videos from being recorded.[8]

Below are some of the accusations listed by Du which come from her Weibo posts:[11][12][13][8]

  1. Wu never took any safety precautions whenever he raped the girls
  2. Wu would frequently "pick up" young and pretty fan-girls, bring them over to what he claimed to be a mini fan convention, and tell them that there were more fans coming. The site of the "convention" would turn out to be a hotel, and when they reached their destination they would realise that they were alone in a room with Wu.
  3. Du received a total of CNY 500 thousand (approximately USD$ 78 thousand) as hush money. Du provided a video of the transaction and said that she is in the process of returning the money.
  4. Du had been invited to his home under the pretence of a work opportunity, where she was pressured to drink alcohol and later awoke naked on his bed, discovering she had been raped.
  5. Wu had a sexually transmitted infection while seeing a girl and that he forced her to get an abortion.
  6. 7 other women had told her that Wu had raped them after using the same method he had used on Du, promising jobs and other opportunities.

After she was interviewed by NetEase, a major news portal, the allegations gained further attention.[7] Following the accusations, Du also responded to Wu's legal team and said that she and the other victims would hand over their evidence to the police in due course.[12]

On his personal Weibo account, Wu denied supplying Du with alcohol, and also rejected other allegations that he had enticed girls to have sex in return for benefits, raped girls while they were unconscious, and had sex with minors.[11] He also announced that his company would take legal actions, calling the accusations "malicious rumours".[7]

Process

On July 31, 2021, Wu was detained by the Beijing Chaoyang District police on suspicion of rape after "repeatedly seducing young women into having sex", the police said in an official statement.[7][14]

China's top law enforcement agency, the ruling Communist Party's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, commented on Wu's detention, posting on Weibo:

"On Chinese land, it is necessary to abide by Chinese laws. We do not wrong; we do not indulge. We take facts as the basis and the law as the criterion."[7][15]

The People's Daily (the primary newspaper owned by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party), used the arrest to warn that foreign citizenship was not any protection against violating Chinese laws after questions aroused whether Wu's Canadian citizenship would affect his punishment:

"On Chinese soil, everyone is equal before the law. No-one has any amulet. Star aura cannot protect it, fans cannot protect it, and foreign passports cannot protect it. No-one has the privilege of trespassing the law." — State broadcaster CCTV in an online commentary[13]

On August 16, 2021, he was formally arrested over allegations of rape. The statement from the prosecutor's office in Beijing's Chaoyang said Wu's arrest for suspected rape was formally approved, but it did not offer any details on the charges.[16]

On November 25, 2022, Wu was convicted of rape, tax evasion, and what Reuters described as "assembling a crowd to engage in sexual promiscuity". The court imposed a prison sentence of 13 years for the sex crime convictions, a fine of CNY 600 million (approximately US$ 93 million) for the tax evasion, and said he would be deported from China. Reuters reported that in such cases, the deportation would probably only take place after his prison sentence is served.[5]

Influence

Judiciary

There has been more awareness of gender-based violence in China, first sparked by the 2018 #MeToo movement, where women voiced their experiences of sexual harassment, sometimes involving high-profile figures. Many users on Weibo have thanked Du for speaking out against Wu and raising awareness for other women who have faced similar experiences.[11][7]

Works removed

On the evening of August 1, 2021, QQ Music and NetEase Music removed all of Kris Wu's music from the shelves. The official Weibo account of big-budget costume drama The Golden Hairpin, which stars Wu, deleted all posts related to him, leaving only a poster featuring the show's supporting characters. The Golden Hairpin, produced by Tencent Video, is Wu's first TV drama. Wu's account on the short video platform Douyin was also blocked and its followers have been removed, and his Weibo profile has been taken down due to "Complaints in violating the rules and regulations of Weibo's Community Convention".[17]

Brands and companies

Numerous companies have followed suit in ousting Wu: brand endorsement deals were ended; social media posts that featured him were removed,[3] and he was later blacklisted by several networks. Below lists some of the entities that have either condemned Wu or disassociated themselves from him:

Prior relevant laws and regulations in Mainland China

Ban of "notorious" artists

In September 2014, the National Radio and Television Administration issued the "Notice of the National Radio and Television Administration Office on Strengthening the Management of the Production and Distribution of Radio and Television Programs, Film and TV Dramas, and Online Audio-visual Programs". Artists listed in this order are called "notorious" and could face permanent boycott from the industry.[21]

Relevant laws and regulations

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

According to Article 236 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the crime of rape refers to the act of using violence, coercion or other means against a woman's will to forcibly have sexual intercourse with her, or deliberately have sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of fourteen. Anyone who rapes a woman by violence, coercion or other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of no less than three years but no more than ten years. Whoever commits adultery with a girl under the age of fourteen shall be punished as severely as rape, up to the death penalty. Anyone who commits a joint offense by two or more persons shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of more than ten years, life imprisonment or a death sentence.[22] In addition, according to the territorial principle, if the crime occurred in China, the same sentences apply regardless of the nationality of the offender.[23]

Because Wu is a Canadian citizen, a conviction by the judiciary of China makes him eligible for deportation from China, since according to Article 35 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, foreigners who commit crimes can face deportation.[24] Some publications pointed out that the Chinese-American lawyer Bao Yuming, who was previously convicted of "violating social ethics and public order and good customs" in his sexual assault case, was deported.[25]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Chinese: 都美竹

References

  1. ^ a b c d Huang, Yunxuan (July 18, 2021). "吳亦凡爆「酒局選妃」睡8女！央視出手了 品牌方終止合作". SET News (in Chinese (Mandarin)). Retrieved November 26, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Zhang, Xiaohan (July 20, 2021). "懶人包／吳亦凡酒局「20女 vs. 4男」！ 4000字揪「完整時間軸」". ETtoday新聞雲 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Mei Zi, Tan (July 19, 2021). "Chinese rapper Kris Wu denies accusations he raped over 30 women, including minors". Malay Mail. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  4. ^ Chang, Wayne (November 25, 2022). "Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu sentenced to 13 years of prison for rape in China". CNN. Retrieved November 26, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ a b Yu, Sophie; Pollard, Martin (November 25, 2022). Munroe, Tony; Fernandez, Clarence (eds.). "China sentences Canadian pop singer Kris Wu to 13 years in jail for rape". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 26, 2022. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  6. ^ Chou, Inna (July 19, 2021). "吳亦凡、都美竹事件整理！私下和解對話曝光、吳亦凡工作室澄清卻遭網打臉". Vogue Taiwan. Archived from the original on August 2, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Yeung, Jessie (August 2, 2021). "Pop star Kris Wu detained in China after rape allegations". CNN. Archived from the original on November 25, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c "Kris Wu vs. Du Meizhu — The Full Timeline Of Events That Has Taken Over Chinese And International Media". Koreaboo. July 19, 2021. Archived from the original on September 24, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  9. ^ Romano, Aja (October 17, 2022). "Xi Jinping vs fandom". Vox. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  10. ^ "Brands drop Chinese-Canadian star Kris Wu over sex allegations". BBC News. July 20, 2021. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d "Kris Wu: K-Pop star arrested on suspicion of rape". BBC News. July 31, 2021. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Reign, Janie (July 18, 2021). "[TW] 19-year-old Du Meizhu accuses Kris Wu of allegedly raping her and 30 other women and girls, including underage teenagers". allkpop. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  13. ^ a b Birtles, Bill (August 5, 2021). "A Chinese star was accused of rape. What followed offers clues into Beijing's new stance on fame". ABC News. Archived from the original on October 17, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  14. ^ Davis, Rebecca (July 31, 2021). "Kris Wu Detained by Chinese Police on Suspicion of Rape". Variety. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  15. ^ CCTV (August 1, 2021). "吴亦凡一案，该让某些走火入魔的粉丝清醒了！". Weixin Official Accounts Platform (in Chinese (Mandarin)). Retrieved September 2, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Yeung, Jessie; Gan, Nectar (August 16, 2021). "Pop star Kris Wu formally arrested in China on suspicion of rape". CNN. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  17. ^ Lu, Fan, ed. (August 1, 2021). "吴亦凡被刑拘后遭全网封杀！社交账号被封 所有音乐作品下架". Phoenix Media Investment. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  18. ^ a b c Suen, Zoe (July 23, 2021). "Louis Vuitton Terminates Kris Wu Contract After Police Investigation". The Business of Fashion. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Wang, Minnie (July 20, 2021). "Brands cut ties with Chinese star Kris Wu over rape and teen sex allegations | Advertising". Campaign Asia. Archived from the original on November 25, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  20. ^ a b c d Zhang, Tianwei (July 19, 2021). "Louis Vuitton Ends Kris Wu Endorsement Over Predatory Claims". WWD. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  21. ^ Xu, Yongwei, ed. (February 5, 2021). ""劣迹艺人"惩戒复出程序业内首次明确 或被永久抵制". Sina Finance (in Chinese (Mandarin)). Archived from the original on November 25, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  22. ^ "吃了两天瓜，也该正经聊点法律问题了！". China News Service (in Chinese (Mandarin)). July 22, 2021. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  23. ^ "吴亦凡被指涉嫌性侵："即使他是加拿大人 中国也有权管辖"". 新浪网 (in Chinese). July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  24. ^ ""吴亦凡事件"法律问题分析". 新浪司法 (in Chinese). July 20, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  25. ^ Yi, Bing (July 20, 2021). Shen, Hua; Hong, Wei (eds.). "男星吴亦凡引舆论风暴 事实不清央视忙发声". Radio Free Asia (in Chinese (Mandarin)). Archived from the original on November 1, 2022. Retrieved July 23, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
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