Beijing court rejects high-profile MeToo leader’s appeal

Zhou Xiaoxuan has been pressing allegations against a state TV personality for four years; supporters turn out in rare gathering.

Zhou Xiaoxuan arrives at the Beijing court to a bouquet welcome on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

A Chinese court rejected an ­appeal over sexual harassment allegations by one of the leading ­figures of China’s #MeToo movement, in a case that drew a heavy police presence outside the courthouse in Beijing.

Zhou Xiaoxuan shot to prominence in 2018 after she accused Zhu Jun, a well-known state television presenter in China, of sexually harassing her when she was an intern. He sued her that year for defamation in response.

Ms Zhou in turn took her sexual harassment allegations against Zhu to court. Last year, a Chinese court dismissed the case, citing a lack of evidence.

An appeals court in Beijing again rejected the case on Wednesday, in the latest setback in China for women who have sought to push back against sexual misconduct in the workplace.

“The evidence submitted by plaintiff Zhou was insufficient to prove that defendant Zhu had committed sexual harassment against her, and the appeal request could not be established,” a statement released late on ­Wednesday evening by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said.

The case is unusual for the way that Ms Zhou has challenged a Chinese household name, especially someone closely tied to the state through his work at state broadcaster China Central Television. According to Ms Zhou, the TV presenter forcibly kissed and groped her when she was interning at CCTV in 2014.

Zhu sued her after her account, first published in a private messaging group, became public. Women in China who publicise allegations of sexual harassment frequently face defamation suits from those they accuse. Zhu has denied wrongdoing and said he had never touched Ms Zhou.

Dozens of uniformed and plain-clothed police patrolled in front of the Beijing courthouse ahead of the hearing on Wednesday, sealing off the footpath with police tape and tailing some of the journalists present, as Ms Zhou gathered with roughly a dozen supporters at a KFC restaurant inside a nearby shopping mall.

Before the hearing, Ms Zhou said she intended to present new evidence in court that police in her home city of Wuhan had pressured her parents in 2018 to tell her to drop her claims, which she said amounted to an acknowledgment that she had been a victim.

Sexual harassment cases in China face a high burden of proof and Ms Zhou said she was prepared for the likelihood her appeal would fail. Win or lose, she said, she hoped her case would encourage judges in China to better understand the difficulties Chinese women faced in pressing claims of sexual misconduct.

“When they hear your story, maybe the next victim who walks into this court will be believed,” she said outside court.

Before heading into court, Ms Zhou stopped outside the mall to pose for pictures with supporters. One unfurled a cardboard sign with “WE THE ­PEOPLE” scrawled across the front.

“The most important thing about the past four years is that we have raised this question: When a woman experiences sexual harassment in a private space, is it worth taking her pain seriously?” Ms Zhou said.

After the verdict, Ms Zhou said she was contemplating whether to appeal again. “I’m not sure what else I can do,” she said.

“As long as there’s a path, I’ll definitely try my best.”

The gathering of supporters was a rare scene in today’s Beijing, where the government’s grip has grown far tighter during the past decade under President Xi Jinping.

Much of the space for civil society has disappeared. Activists have been detained in large ­numbers.

Sexual assault allegations have taken on added sensitivity since last year, when one of China’s biggest tennis stars, Peng Shuai, detailed a relationship with former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli that she said was sometimes consensual and sometimes involved coercion. Peng, who largely disappeared from view after the accusation, later said she had never accused anyone of sexual assault and “there’s been a lot of misunderstanding”.

As court proceedings got under way in Beijing on Wednesday, some of Ms Zhou’s supporters said they knew her case was sensitive. Given the police presence, they avoided congregating.

Instead, they strolled around the nearby neighbourhood. Some revealed small, silent signs of protest, including a young woman who wore a “1984” pin fastened to her shirt.

The Wall Street Journal