After an investigation aimed at quelling public outrage over the case of a mother of eight discovered chained by the neck, China has fired, fined, and investigated more than a dozen local officials in eastern Jiangsu province.
Citizens were upset by the woman’s predicament after a video showing her locked in a doorless hut surfaced in late January. Many users of the Twitter-like Weibo platform addressed the limited rights of rural women and posted historical incidents of women being trafficked around the world’s second-largest economy, including a film of a man keeping his wife in a potato shed.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the Communist Party chief for Feng county was among those removed, citing a local government inquiry. Officials also declared a crackdown on women’s trafficking, promising to investigate cases involving violations of women’s, children’s, and mentally challenged people’s rights.
