Pop star Kris Wu arrested – #Metoo debate now reaches China.
A simple social media post got China’s highest-ranking #Metoo case rolling: At the beginning of July, 19-year-old influencer Du Meizhu accused Canadian-Chinese pop star Kris Wu of pushing girls, some of whom were underage, to have sex for job prospects.
Despite more and more young women making allegations, 30-year-old Wu denied the crime. On Saturday, the police in Beijing took the singer into custody on suspicion of rape. In the Chinese legal system, this is almost equivalent to a guilty verdict.
Kris Wu is not a C-celebrity, but perhaps the most popular superstar of his generation: Born in Guangzhou, the single mother emigrated with her then ten-year-old son to Vancouver, a popular destination for well-heeled Chinese families.
In 2008 Wu took part in a global casting for the South Korean label SM Entertainment, which put him in the successful boy band “Exo”. The K-pop group served the market in both South Korea and China. But Wu couldn’t make the music he was passionate about. It was only as a solo artist in China that he achieved his real breakthrough as a rapper with an independent style.
Rumors have been circulating about the singer’s Playboy image for years. And so far, authorities have always reacted nervously to similar accusations against celebrities: Young women who defended themselves publicly were not infrequently silenced by the censorship apparatus. Party cadres in Beijing fear that a #Meetoo movement could spark potential grassroots activism.
According to critics, the now tough approach could have something to do with the fact that Wu is a Canadian citizen. The party newspaper “Renmin Ribao” comments that foreign citizenship does not protect against the law.
The pre-trial detention strains the already tense relationship between the states: Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig have been in Chinese prisons for a good two years. Her detention is widely perceived as “political hostage diplomacy” as it came shortly after Huawei’s chief financial officer was arrested in Vancouver. The Wu case dominates the debate on Weibo, the country’s leading social network. The news of the arrest on the Beijing police channel received more than eleven million likes. Many users wish Wu the longest possible prison sentence.
