A Beijing court has ruled against the plaintiff in a very high-profile case of sexual harassment in China, judging that there is not enough evidence to support her allegations, in a decision that is likely to hit the #MeToo movement in the country.
In a series of social media posts, 28-year-old Zhou Xiaosuan accused in 2018 the well-known TV presenter Zhou Joon on the state network CCTV that he bullied and kissed her in 2014, when she worked for him as a trainee. He denies these allegations.
Joe’s allegations quickly spread on social media and she sued Joe for damages three years ago, although the first hearing in the case took place only in December 2020 behind closed doors. The second hearing yesterday, Tuesday, was also held in camera.
The People’s Court of Hindian states in its verdict, in which it names Joe and Joe only by their last names, that the evidence submitted is “insufficient” to prove sexual harassment.
It was not clear if Joe was present in court yesterday, and it was not possible to contact his lawyer.
Following the announcement of the court decision, Joe told a small group of her supporters that, after three years of fighting for her case, she felt “exhausted” and “disappointed” by the verdict. In her opinion, she added, she was not given the opportunity to give a good account of what happened.
“I do not know if I have the courage to continue it for another three years, so I do not know if this time I will say goodbye,” he noted.
However, in a statement later, Joe said that her team would appeal against the verdict.
“We will definitely appeal, because in this case we did not examine any of the key facts at all, that is, all the videos from the surveillance cameras.”
The #MeToo movement in China started in 2018, when a student in Beijing publicly accused her teacher of sexual harassment. This has spread to NGOs, the media and other industries.
The debate over #MeToo was then stifled, but recent widespread, uncensored censorship of sexual assault scandals in China involving tech giant Alibaba and celebrity artist Chris Wu has rekindled the issue.
The article A blow to China’s #MeToo movement: Complainant in well-known case loses trial published in NewsIT .