Nine men arrested after brutally attacking women at a restaurant in China

Alarming footage of three women brutally attacked at a restaurant in China has sparked outrage. Warning: Confronting content.

WARNING: Confronting content.

Nine people have been arrested over a brutal attack on a group of women at a barbecue restaurant in northern China.

The savage beating has prompted an outcry about gender violence in the country.

Alarming CCTV footage circulated on Chinese social media begins with three woman enjoying a meal at Tangshan city in Hebei province on Friday. A man is then seen placing his hand on a woman’s back.

When the woman pushes him away, the man slaps her across the face. Other men then help drag the woman outside by her hair. She was then brutally attacked with blows, kicked and stomped as she lay crumpled on the ground.

A man approaches and places a man on the woman’s shoulder. Picture: Supplied.

The woman’s dining partners attempted to intervene but the group of men also attacked them. One woman was roughly pushed to the ground and her head slammed into the pavement.

Other than the woman’s female friends, no one intervened to stop the attack.

Two women were treated at hospital following the attack and were “in stable conditions and not in mortal danger”, while another two sustained minor injuries, according to authorities.

SupChina reports police did little to follow-up the attack until it went viral on social media.

Tangshan Police finally sprang into action when it announced on Saturday that all nine men involved had been arrested in Jiangsu, north of Shanghai. Authorities claimed officers had been “pulling out all the stops” to locate the group of attackers.

The man proceeds to bash the woman inside the restaurant in China. Picture: Supplied.

Police also announced one of the suspects surnamed Chen had harassed and beat one of the victims, according to Chinese state-media outlet Global Times.

Chen’s friend allegedly entered the restaurant and helped him drag the woman outside and also beat her dining partners.

Chen is reportedly the owner of an aquatic products shop in Tangshan, according to media reports. The Global Times reported he had been “involved in other economic and traffic disputes and has been listed as a person who default on their court orders by a local court.”

The attack instantly went viral on Chinese social media, dominating Weibo’s most-discussed topics after the related hashtag reached more than half a billion people.

The horror bashing also went viral in the West, sparking angry reactions around the world.

Users condemned the “epidemic of gender-based violence” in the country and called for action.

“I couldn’t stop shaking when I watched the video. I’m in despair,” one woman wrote (in Chinese).

“She was just hanging out with friends and didn’t want to be disturbed by some random guy. This is something that could happen to me one day.”

A group of men attack the three women outside the restaurant. Picture: Supplied.

“How is this sort of thing still happening in 2022?” one commented. “Please give them criminal sentences, and don’t let any of them get away.”

“All of this could happen to me, could happen to any of us,” another commented.

All nine men involved in the attack were arrested. Picture: Supplied.

Local news outlets were also slammed for their coverage of the incident.

In a now-deleted Weibo post by the Beijing Youth Daily, the attacker was described as “having a conversation with the women” before his friends “joined the battle to fight against them.”

The trigger for the fight was also blamed on the man “being turned down after hitting on a woman under the influence of alcohol.”

A Weibo user responded by posting, “Is a man entitled to touch a woman without her consent when he hits on her? Does the woman have no right to reject him? Is it okay to call it a fight when the lady defends herself in the face of violence? Is being drunk a valid excuse for the man’s horrendous behaviour?“

Another woman wrote: “We are in survival mode. We’ve reached a point where radical social reform needs to happen.”

Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan expressed his outrage at the attack.

“I was heartbroken by the case as only girls stood up and supported each other, while male onlookers did nothing. Men should never assault women and a group of people certainly shouldn’t beat up an individual. Unfairness always exists somewhere.”

Gender-based violence has been a longstanding issue in China, with the country introducing an anti-domestic violence law making offences punishable in March 2016.

Internet censors blocked key words related to the MeToo movement in 2018 when women spoke out on sexual harassment by university professors.

Last year, a Chinese man was sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife, an attack live-streamed on social media.