A female survivor of domestic violence has spoken out on social media about the devastating acid attack that has left her scarred for life (#被丈夫泼硫酸毁容女子发声#).
The incident happened in Kaihua Country in Quzhou, Zhejiang, on Jan. 14, 2023, when a 31-year-old female named Zhang argued with her husband, Xu Zhong, over their marriage.
During the dispute, Xu Zhong, a 29-year-old chemical engineer, attacked his wife by throwing concentred sulfate acid in her face. He already had prepared the bottle with concentrated sulfuric acid prior to the incident.
“I want you all to see my acid burns,” Zhang says in the video she recently posted on social media, sharing how she has already had three operations after the attack, which mainly burned the skin tissue around her eyes, her face, hands, and also scarring her two ears, leaving her partially deaf.
After the acid attack, Xu Zhong was detained for ten days and received a 400 yuan ($58) fine.
The topic went trending on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Douyin on Saturday, Feb. 18. The topic “Husband Splashes Wife with Acid, Gets Detained for Ten Days” (#丈夫泼妻子硫酸被行拘10日#) received over 82 million views on Weibo at the time of writing.
Zhang prior to the attack and in her video after the attack.
Zhang had been a victim of domestic violence prior to the brutal attack. In June of 2022, Xu Zhong raised the topic of having a second child. When Zhang disagreed, the couple’s relation went bad and Xu Zhong started being violent toward his wife, after which she wanted to file for divorce.
Because Xu Zhong would not agree to a divorce, Zhang hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit. She eventually was not able to come up with the legal fees and dropped the case in July of 2022.
In January of 2023, the separated couple met again to discuss the possibilities of divorce. It was at this time that Xu Zhong splashed Zhang with sulfate acid.
“If you want to commit a crime, just get married,” one top comment in one of the related threads on Weibo said.
The case has hit a nerve on Chinese social media, where other domestic violence incidents previously also went trending and sparked anger about the problem of domestic violence often being downplayed by Chinese local officials when women reach out for help.
Domestic abuse was officially criminalized with China’s first national law against domestic violence in 2016, but it is still a widespread problem, partly due to a general lack of public awareness and due to police officers often regarding it as a “private” family matter.
In light of the online attention surrounding the case, the local authorities in Kaihua released a statement on Saturday, in which they stated that the ten-day detention and fine were for Xu’s acts of violence intended to cause harm. The case is currently still being investigated and the local public security organs will hold the suspect legally responsible once they can assess the extent of Zhang’s injuries (#警方回应男子泼妻子硫酸仅拘10天#).
But on Weibo, many commenters have little understanding for the legal procedures and do not see why Xu is not already behind bars considering the severity of the attack.
“They only detained him for ten days? This can’t be real,” some write. “There is no excuse for him not being in jail now,” others say.
Similar discussions went trending on Chinese social media in 2020, after the death of Tibetan vlogger Lhamu, who died after her husband attacked her and set her on fire inside her own home. Lhamu’s death sparked widespread calls on authorities to do more to protect and legally empower victims of domestic abuse.
Besides the initial light sentence for Zhang’s husband, there is also online anger over the fact that Zhang was unsuccessful in filing for divorce in the summer of 2022.
Although many people think it should become easier for Chinese couples to file for divorce – even if the other party disagrees, – a law that was released in 2020 introduced a mandatory “cooling off period” of thirty days. The law is allegedly intended to make people think twice before finalizing their divorce, but it also triggered outrage as people felt the regulation makes victims of domestic violence even more vulnerable.
Some Chinese netizens say Zhang’s case brings back memories of the 1996 case of Yang Yuxia (杨玉霞), the most well-known acid attack case in China to date.
The Yang Yuxia case attracted nationwide attention in 1996.
Yang Yuxia was a 28-year-old primary school teacher in Shanghai who had an extramarital affair with the father of one of her students. After he ended the relationship, Yang attacked his wife and young daughter with sulfate acid, leaving them disfigured and leaving the girl (partially) blind. She was given the death penalty and faced execution by firing squad three months after the attack.
As for Zhang’s case, it is yet uncertain what the outcome of this particular domestic violence case will be, as it will depend on the findings of the ongoing investigation and the eventual ruling of the Kaihua court.
By Manya Koetse
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