Chinese universities urged to do more to fight sexual harassment in wake of #MeToo cases
- Mainland higher education institutes urged to copy Hong Kong’s policies by setting up dedicated committees including student representatives to fight the problem
- NPC delegate Michael Tien says too many cases have been buried partly because ‘traditional values’ make victims reluctant to come forward
Mainland Chinese universities have been urged to set up official committees that include student representatives to tackle sexual harassment after the #MeToo movement highlighted a number of accusations against high-profile academics.
Michael Tien Puk-sun, a Hong Kong representative at the National People’s Congress, proposed that the policies adopted by the city’s universities should be extended to mainland campuses as soon as possible.
Tien, who is also a Hong Kong Legislative Council member, acknowledged that campus sexual harassment has been a long-standing and previously buried problem in China.
“I think it has a lot to do with traditional Chinese values … most of the time we keep things inside us and may not even tell our parents,” he said on the sidelines of Beijing’s annual policymaking meeting.
“We are afraid of being laughed at, or that there’s no evidence. Most likely a lot of students are worried about receiving some kind of undesirable result at the end.”
