There has never been any natural justice, it all depends on persistent questioning and effort.
——Basic Common Sense by Xiang Dongliang
More than a year later, the case of the chained woman in Feng County finally received a partial justice. According to the Intermediate People’s Court of Xuzhou City:
It was determined that Dong Zhimin was guilty of the crime of abuse, and sentenced to six years and six months in prison; he was guilty of the crime of illegal detention and sentenced to three years in prison, with multiple crimes being punished, and it was decided to execute a nine-year prison sentence; it was determined that the defendants Shi Lizhong, Sang Heniu, Tan Aiqing, Huo Yongqu, and Huo Fude were guilty of the crime of trafficking women, and were sentenced to eleven years, ten years, thirteen years, eight years and six months, and eight years in prison respectively, and fined.
Dong Zhimin was sentenced to nine years in prison
The human traffickers who abducted Xiaohuamei from Yunnan and the Dong Zhimin who locked her up to give birth to 8 children have all been punished by law. For the public, this is a result of the persistent questioning of everyone. Yes, justice has come, but it is not complete.
After the verdict was announced, some commentators believed that the sentence was too light, and 9 years was not enough to give birth to 8 children; others believed that the conviction was unreasonable, because the crime of abuse is applicable between family members, and the marriage formed by trafficking and falsifying information should not be established. These doubts are somewhat reasonable, but they have not grasped the key issue.
Rather than focusing on how severely the bad guys are punished, I want to question whether the victims have received real rescue.
Xiaohuamei’s chains are gone, but she has not gained freedom
Although more than a year has passed, the chains on Xiaohuamei’s neck still weigh heavily on the hearts of everyone who cares about her, and they are still firmly binding Xiaohuamei’s tragic fate in this life.
The last time Xiaohuamei was seen by everyone, it was a report issued by some official media in a mental health medical institution “interview”. The reason for putting quotation marks on the interview is because it is essentially an official release rather than a media investigation. As the victim who possesses the most core facts, Xiaohuamei could have told the public about her experience within the scope of her health, but in the report, she had no voice.
Today, Xinhua News Agency once again reported on Xiaohuamei’s current situation, which was still introduced by her eldest son, Dong Mougang.
Is it because Xiaohuamei is unable to express herself? Obviously not. Despite the difficulty in understanding her accent, despite the presence of mental disorders, she can still speak. Is it to protect her privacy as a victim? Obviously not. CCTV has been filming her face with a camera, and it has not been coded and released, so what privacy is there to speak of…
The fundamental reason is that Xiaohuamei is locked up by another invisible chain in the name of protection and rescue.
After ending the tragic experience of being used as a fertility tool for twenty years, Xiaohuamei was once again treated as a tightly controlled stability maintenance target, and may have permanently lost the opportunity to return to normal society.
It is of course gratifying that the bad guys have received the punishment they deserve, but what can comfort people more is that the victims have received real care and help and can bask in the sunshine of freedom.
Supplement some popular science knowledge:
Patients with schizophrenia, after scientific treatment, still have the possibility of returning to normal life, and the probability of self-harm or harming others in the stable stage of the illness is not high, and they should not be kept in closed treatment all the time. Moreover, being deprived of social contact is also not conducive to the patient’s recovery.
The father and mother are both gone, what about the 8 children?
The father is a scumbag who bought and abused women and was sentenced, the mother is a mentally disabled patient who was forced to give birth and was controlled. For the 8 innocent children, it is really difficult to say whether such a dramatic turn of fate is good or bad…
In a good way, they can finally get rid of such a highly distorted family, and they don’t have to grow up in an environment that is seriously out of touch with modern civilization. Perhaps they can get better nutritional support, or perhaps they can have a healthier mentality.
In a bad way, the aftermath of the public opinion event has not subsided, and may even never really subside for a lifetime. These children, with the label of the chained woman, will surely have a particularly difficult time growing up. The supervision and rescue designated by the local government is also unknown how long it can last…
According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on April 7, Xiaohuamei’s 8 children are still staying in Dongjiacun, and the younger brothers and sisters are all in school and kindergarten. The “loving mothers” in the village often come to the house to help with washing and cooking. It can be seen that the children have not been adopted, nor have they entered child welfare institutions.
If in a normal social environment, the rescue of these children actually has a relatively more ideal solution:
The professional child rescue agency takes over, provides psychological counseling for the children, takes the children out of the original environment, and entrusts them to loving families that meet the conditions when the time is right, which can both provide the children with a healthy growth environment to the greatest extent and also relatively stay away from the adverse effects of public opinion events on the children.
It is a pity that this road is not allowed. Just as more than a year after the incident of the chained woman, there are still people guarding the entrance of Dongjiacun, Huankou Town, Feng County day and night, and no strangers are allowed to enter.
The case of the chained woman has been judged, what about other trafficked women?
What concerns me more and makes me indignant is that the case of the chained woman has stopped at an individual case and has not really promoted the rescue of more trafficked women in the local area.
Xiaohuamei was trafficked to Feng County in 1998, and after being resold multiple times, she was finally bought by Dong Zhimin, and the entire trafficking chain was shocking. I don’t believe that the human traffickers involved only did this one evil act of trafficking women in so many years, and only trafficked Xiaohuamei as a victim.
The Xiaohuamei case is the first piece of the puzzle of justice in that history and that area, and complete justice still requires continuous questioning.
What about other trafficked women and children? Where were they sold, and what is their current living situation? What results did Jiangsu Province’s large-scale crackdown on trafficking last year achieve?
I also know that asking these questions will be very unpopular, but my values and conscience do not allow me to remain silent.
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