A government official in northeastern China has been fired after a video emerged of a woman attacking him with a mop while accusing him of sexual harassment.
The 14-minute video that went viral shows the official’s subordinate, surnamed Zhou, throwing items on his desk before retrieving a mop to attack the man, surnamed Wang, the deputy director of the poverty alleviation department of Beilin district, in Heilongjiang Province.
While Zhou, who authorities later said has a mental illness, is beating and swearing at Wang, the man says, “It was just a joke”, while the woman raged. He then sat in his chair, occasionally wiping water from his face.
She is also seen in the video making phone calls, claiming the man had sent harassing texts to multiple women in the office.
Another woman not seen in the video says, “How is it a joke? It shows that you have bad character … Have you thought about consequences for your office?”
The video went viral over the weekend, with many comments praising the woman for standing up to her superior and fighting to protect herself and her coworkers.
“When women get harassed in the workplace, they have to get tough,” one said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service.
“The man did not even put up a fight, which means he could not argue with the facts,” another said.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Beilin district commission for discipline inspection had removed Wang from his office and party position for “lifestyle violations of discipline”. Zhou would not be punished.
According to Chinese Communist Party disciplinary regulations, when one has “improper sexual relations with others” they can be given a warning, removed from a position or placed on probation.
The Beilin district government did not respond to requests for comments.
China’s #MeToo movement started in 2018 and, in the beginning, it was primarily related to historical allegations of sexual harassment and abuse.
Gradually, women have been speaking out against inappropriate behaviour more quickly and making official complaints where once they might have remained silent.
Last December, scriptwriter Zhou Xiaoxuan, better known by her nickname Xianzi, brought a landmark case against prominent CCTV television host Zhu Jun over claims that he forcibly kissed her. The outcome of the case is still pending.