A video that went viral last week on Chinese social media that showed a woman from Maanshan, Anhui province, wailing about being sexually harassed and threatened with violence by a man surnamed Guo, turned out to be staged, local police said on Tuesday.
The woman, surnamed Pei, has been criminally detained by police for disorderly behavior, and the case is under further investigation, the police bureau of Maanshan's Huashan district said. On Thursday, Pei posted a three-and-a-half minute video on Sina Weibo, sobbing and complaining that she had been receiving death and rape threats from Guo for half a year, and she hoped to ask netizens for protection because the police had turned a blind eye to the threats. The local police said the video received more than 50 million views and spurred a massive online backlash against the police for dereliction of duty.
The video and the Weibo account from which it was posted have been deleted. After Guo found out the bracelet was only worth about a few dozen yuan, he tried to contact Pei to return the item and ask for a refund.
But Pei declined Guo's contact attempts and blacklisted his phone number and WeChat account, so Guo used his friends' phones to call Pei. The police found that the threats mentioned in the video, as well as claims that the local police refusing to deal with the case, were all fabricated by Pei. Nevertheless, the video has caused "severe negative social impact", the statement said. Zhao Min, an actor, said on his Sina Weibo that he felt something was sketchy the moment he opened Pei's video.
The police not arresting people based solely on your side of the story cannot count as not doing their job. Last year, more than 12, police staff were injured during missions. Of those 12,, officers and assistants were killed, it said. Mini pig cafe opens in Hangzhou.
