Beijing police said on Saturday they had detained Kris Wu, a popular Canadian-Chinese singer, on suspicion of rape.MeToo controversy It sparked outrage in China.
The police did not provide details of their investigation into Mr. Wu. But it came weeks after an 18-year-old college student in Beijing accused him of seducing young women like him with the promise of career opportunities and then forcing them to have sex.
Mr. Wu, 30, known in China as Wu Yifan, is the most prominent person detained in China over #MeToo allegations.
She gained fame as a member of the Korean pop group EXO, after which she embarked on a successful solo career as a model, actress, and singer. Although he denied the allegations when they first surfaced, they caused an uproar that led to at least a dozen companies including Bulgari, Louis Vuitton and Porsche severing ties with the singer.
The Chaoyang District branch of the Beijing police said in a statement. statement from social media On Saturday night, he said he was investigating online accusations that Mr. Wu had “repeated sexual intercourse with young women.” It was said that Mr. Wu was detained while the criminal investigation was ongoing.
Du Meizhu, who blamed Mr. Wu, publicly said He said that when he first met Mr. Wu in December last year, the singer was taken to his home in Beijing by his manager for work-related discussions. She said she was pressured to drink cocktails until she passed out and later found herself in bed.
They dated until March when he stopped responding to his calls and messages, according to his description of the events. She also said she believes he is targeting other young women.
Mr. Wu’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ms. Du could not be reached.
It was not immediately clear whether the police were specifically investigating Ms. Du’s allegations. Police released what appeared to be preliminary findings about Ms. Du’s allegations in a statement in July. Police said she exaggerated Ms. Du’s story “to increase her online popularity”, an assessment criticized by her supporters as embarrassing the victim.
The explosion of support for Ms. Du was a sign that the country’s nascent #MeToo movement continued to grow despite the government’s strict limits on activism and opposition. After Ms. Du spoke, her supporters filled the social media pages of several brands and threatened to boycott if they did not stop their partnership with Mr. Wu, a campaign that quickly forced companies to distance themselves from him.
accusations The #MeToo movement has sparked a heated debate on issues such as victim shaming, consent, and abuse of power in the workplace, concepts that were rarely in mainstream debate before globalization.
Authorities in China often discourage women from filing sexual harassment complaints, and survivors of sexual assault or harassment are often embarrassed and even defamation lawsuit. Censor and limitations on dissent have also hampered efforts to organize among feminist activists. trolls are given cover abuse.
Still, the high-profile nature of the controversy made it impossible to ignore Ms. Du’s claims for Chinese officials, who have always sought what they saw as potential sources of social unrest.
The police announcement, posted on the country’s popular Weibo social media platform, immediately started trending and garnered more than six million likes.
New York-based feminist activist Lu Pin said Mr. Wu’s arrest is a big step for the #MeToo movement in China.
Ms. Lu said, “Whatever the motivation of the police, even the fact that he was detained is huge.”
“For the past three years, some prominent figures have faced #MeToo accusations, but nothing has happened to them,” said Ms. Lu. “Now with Wu Yifan, #MeToo has finally taken down someone with real power in China – showing that rape is unacceptable no matter how strong you are.”
Mr. Wu’s arrest came amid wider government crackdown on the entertainment industry.
In recent years, Chinese authorities have taken aggressive action to clean up the industry-wide problem of tax evasion and cap the salaries of the country’s biggest movie stars. In June, the country’s internet watchdog began a crackdown on what the government calls “chaotic” online celebrity fan clubs, which the government has come to view as a growing source of public volatility.
People’s Daily, spokesman for the ruling Communist Party, portrayed Mr. Wu’s arrest as a warning to celebrities that neither fame nor foreign citizenship can protect them from the law.
“A foreign national is not a talisman. “No matter how famous he is, he has no immunity.” wrote a propaganda outlet. “Remember: the higher the popularity, the more disciplined you must be, the more popular you are, the more you must obey the law.”