China — The story of a second grade teacher molesting his students and giving six of them sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) is the latest story indicative of a larger problem, as a spate of child molestation cases has forced the Communist nation to mandate stricter penalties.
The only information available comes from the Chinese state-controlled news agency, Xinhua. Whether the state is limiting knowledge of the regularity of the cases can only be speculated upon with historical incidents of state-controlled media limiting knowledge of failures in mind; however, even the available data presents a grave epidemic of sexual abuse cases against young children.
Xinhua cites two other specific incidents of abuse besides that of the second grade teacher, but the news outlet alludes to “many recent incidents” in its report on stricter penalties for sexual abuse. They are listed by Xinhua as:
Guang Tianyi, 27, was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for molesting one girl and two boys on separate occasions in Beijing between December 2012 and March this year.
On June 25, a school principal was sentenced to 18 years in jail for raping and molesting girls in Qianshan County in east China’s Anhui Province.
Though the three incidents are the only ones specifically mentioned by the state-controlled media, the changes to the penalties from the government and the types of abuse the penalties address could shed some light on possible other incidents.
The Chinese government identified the need to specifically address: kindergarten teachers committing abuse against children; government officials committing abuse against children; any sexual abuse against children that resulted from breaking and entering; abuse against children whose parents were working away from home; and abuse against children who are seriously disabled.
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