A trio of Chinese men armed with baseball bats and metal pipes has been detained, following a violent assault on students at one of Beijing’s best-known universities.
The case bears strong similarities to a series of racially tinged assaults alleged to have recently occurred in several foreign-centric districts, including Sanlitun, Houhai and Wudaokou, in which foreign witnesses reported being attacked without provocation by local men carrying weapons and traveling in a vehicle. The incidents were widely reported on WeChat and discussed on local forums, such as Reddit, where many expressed concern about possible hate crimes.
Michael (left) takes an image of his injuries shortly after the attack
An Australian student, who asked to be referred to just by his first name, Michael – for fear of possible retaliation – was returning to his BLCU quarters at “around 2am” on 21 December with his Korean girlfriend, Christine, when he says the pair noticed a grey BMW parked ahead.
“We were about 200 meters away [from the university] when [the men inside] yelled out something… they came around in their car and stopped us at the gate,” Michael recalled. Aware of the rumors that a group of men were targeting foreigners with Chinese females, he confronted the gang in an attempt to defuse the situation, explaining: “My girlfriend’s Korean, not Chinese…”
Three men then attacked him with bats and rods. “Once they started hitting me, I grabbed one of the bats and hit one of the Chinese guys back in the head” – an act he was to later regret – “and then approached the other two guys… yelling at them to leave and they backed off. I smashed the bat in half,” explained the former rugby winger.
Before he could check the third man, Michael said, he got up and, as the trio approached again, both students decided to run for help but “As we almost got in the dorm, my girlfriend fell down,” and the men renewed their assault. Michael claimed he remembers little of what happened next but CCTV footage shows him being battered on the head, then disarming another of his metal rod.
Inside, a large amount of students (including “a lot of Russian guys”) assisted the pair while others called the police. “One of the attackers who I’d hit tried to come in… the Chinese had gone to their car again and tried to escape” but fortunately a quick-thinking Russian had removed the keys, according to witnesses. At this point, police arrived. A member of the gang accused the Russian of attacking them, and all four were detained.
One of the alleged assailants at the police station is said to have been a US citizen with Chinese parents (his face has been obscured as he has not been charged)
In a similar December incident, detailed over at the World of Chinese, a foreign student who requested anonymity told a reporter he was approached by a group of six or seven men in a “wagon” and carrying “metal sticks,” who questioned his companion’s ethnicity. “They started asking if my friend was Chinese,” he told the magazine. After being assaulted several times, the man handed over a small amount of money and made his escape.
The magazine spoke also to an eyewitness to “a separate incident in Wudaokou, who said that he saw ‘four Chinese holding bats chasing a black guy, shouting at him,’ along Zhanchunyuan West Road, at around 3 am the same morning.” The location of the latter incident is close (1-2km) to where the attack on Michael and his partner took place. Although extreme violence is rare, attacks on foreigners do occur in the nightspots of Beijing for a variety of reasons – examples from Sanlitun being not infrequent, and not necessarily involving Chinese.
Back at the police station, a bloodied Michael says he was threatened by one of the men (to wit: “I know where you guys live, I’m gonna come get you and stab you”) and endured racial slurs, and both he and his friends were accused of instigating the fight. The Russian was detained and later released the next day, while Michael received five stitches; his passport is now with police as the case continues.
“All three are now in jail,” said Michael. “However, if we can get more witnesses, they’ll serve a longer time in jail.” In legal terms, the men have been detained pending investigation. They can be held for up to 28 days without charge and should police decide to press charges, a case will be sent to the “procurator” for consideration. If the case is accepted, a trial will be set and the assailants can look forward to tackling China’s 99.1% conviction rate, instead of unarmed foreigners.
An image taken at the hospital shows Michael’s head wound, which required five stitches
Michael praised both university authorities and Wudaokou police, who he described as “helpful [and] good” but added that the embassy was “useless.” The investigation is ongoing and “slow.” One potential difficulty might be “the injury suffered to the other man, he was in hospital for a while and looks like he is permanently a bit deformed.” The man is alleged to be an American citizen, though both his parents are Chinese.
Readers who have any information about the case, know of any other incidents, or were themselves victims of one of a similar spate of attacks involving a grey BMW in the last two months are urged to contact Wudaokou police, or email us at the usual address (and we’ll pass your details on). Said Michael: “All I want is this not to happen again.”
You can follow the author of this piece @MrRFH on Twitter
Seems like a case of Chinese guys not getting laid and blaming the dearth of pooty tat on the lao wai. As usual, Chinese “fair fight” is 4-on-one unless it’s a girl…then 2-on-one is honorable.
“…he was in hospital for a while and looks like he is permanently a bit deformed”
Consequences, eh?
Consequences for walking with your friend in Sanlitun? What did he do wrong?
Dudes I just checked your Alexa rankings. You don’t compute, your readership is too small. Anyone can check just go to http://www.alexa.com
No-one reads Beijing Cream anymore. You are soooo 2012. Sorry to break it to ya but it’s true.
Sad, but you could see this kind of thing happening a mile off, just surprised it doesn’t happen more often. Imagine if it was reversed and Chinese guys went to a foreign country and en masse dated local girls (and local girls dated them in preference to local guys), this would happen every week!
Stop speaking farts.
That shit does happen all the time in other countries.
I can’t recall seeing a Chinese guy with a local girl here and there are a lot of Chinese people, students and the like. So no, the situation is not exactly the same. Of course it does happen but not to the same extent.
Certainly, racist beatings occur everywhere, but my point was that with the high number of foreigners with Chinese girlfriends I’m surprised this type of incident doesn’t happen more often.
So take your gou pi and shove it where it originated from!
in white dominated countries, there will be lynch mobs for men of other races that took their women. but unless, of course the male of the other race is more aggressive and relentless, like the blacks after 1969.
Nope. Lots of whites women have Asian boyfriends. In the uk we have had Asian gangs praying on underage girls. No lynch mobs. Take your hate elsewhere.
@Ian
“Lots of whites women have Asian boyfriends. In the uk we have had Asian gangs praying on underage girls.”
You dumbfuck, those aren’t the same “Asians” as the Chinese/Koreans/Japanese. Those are what in America we called the Pakis, i.e. Indians. Nice dodge though moron.
Would girls attact me if I date a local boy in foreign country?
You know what, in most big cities in Western countries I don’t think people would really care if Chinese men dated local girls. People in London or Paris have long stopped thinking of people in terms of just “foreigners” and “locals”, especially based on skin colour.
Most western guys are pretty secure in their manhood to not worry and stress out if they see an Asian guy with a white girl. It’s not even a second thought.
Chinese however, with their ingrained inferiority complexes, can’t stand the sight of it.
It all can be traced to the constant reminders of unequal treaties…unfairness of the Opium Wars…sacking of the Summer Palace…being picked on by stronger powers. Boo Hoo…get over it.
do you think the western guys can keep their cool when the Chinese men can ravish their women on a scale like they currently do to the Chinese women?
“Most western guys are pretty secure in their manhood to not worry and stress out if they see an Asian guy with a white girl. It’s not even a second thought.”
That’s because there’s a massive taboo, reinforced by the mainstream media (Hollywood, television, magazines, etc) taboo against showing east asian guys with white women, so the occasional mixed race couple isn’t a threat to the white male patriarchy. When’s the last time you saw a Hollywood movie showing romance between an all-american white girl (not black, not latina, or other ‘minority’ group) and a chinese man?
I am afraid that is only your benign speculation. The fact is the Chinese men are not taking western women on a large scale. So you never know.
Nor will they ever take western women on a large scale, because they are unattractive to western women, with their pin dicks and paintbrush hair, masochistic yet timid character, no sense of humor, no wit, etc etc etc etc etc but they are of course welcome to try!
These men were not murdered.
Vincent Chin, an ethnic Chinese was murdered by Whites in USA.
I hope that a White man is murdered in China, for justice.
Neil Heywood was murdered in Chongqing. Go fuck yourself, wu mao troll.
Neil Heywood was not murdered because of his ethnicity, Vincent Chin was.
I will not sleep well until justice is restored.
“Justice” in the form of more random violence, apparently…
VENGEANCE
If you want justice, go take it out on Ronald Madis Ebens and Michael Nitz, not an innocent dude hanging spending an evening with his girlfriend.
or on the judge who let these men off..or his daughter that won’t admit the racism behind his decision..
ur full of shit. then why don’t you do something about Neil Heywood’s killers, who got off with a slap on the wrist and didn’t serve a day in prison for their premeditated hate crime murder?
sorry, meant to say Vincent Chin, not Neil Heywood
At Daniel? What seriously? You hope an innocent person gets murdered just to satisfy your thirst for an even amount of race deaths? After all this stuff that happened in Paris and you say that? You are utter scum, there are plenty of Laowai that have been murdered in China, I wouldn’t wish death on you but you certainly need to be taught a lesson! Posts like yours should get flagged for the police.
Sad to see the renaissance of the Boxer Rebellion. Sorry for the wounded expats.
There is obviously some increase of anti-foreign sentiment but as I posted all this on my website, wechat etc. I did not have reactions. In other words, rather isolated incidents of disturbed young Chinese who hate foreigners, just jealous. As for some reactions like from “Daniel”, well shame on you. Looks like you belong to the same sort. There might be some bad-attitude foreigners around but many foreigners treat Chinese girls with more dignity than some Chinese men. On the other hand, the police again is not transparent enough to clarify what is really going on, leaving space for rumors.
I just want Daniel to know that I am with you (Daniel) on this one.
Gorilla warfare is what the weak do when they don’t have a fair chance otherwise. The Whites will be even more violent when we take their women in such a large scale should it happen in the future.
It’s simply convenient for them to preach this equality shit now in their advantage.
Insecure Chinese/ABC guys getting mad because laowais are 1000x more alpha. Suck it up you betas, this is just the beginning.
The beginning of what?
Why don’t you and Daniel just organize a 1-1 fight and leave the rest of us out of this bullshit.
1-1? Doesn’t Daniel need to find 3 friends first for the Chinese version of equal fight?
LOL, a dead alpha becomes zeta.
That is hilarious. Revenge for the killing of one person in 1982? Two words: Boxer Rebellion
I think we still have a few more people who died in China from hate crimes than the other way round.
Oh and by the way. Do you know what the Americans did with the indemnity they got from the rebellion? They set up the school that would become Tsinghua University. That’s right, thousands of foreigners killed on Chinese soil and we took the money and built your Cambridge.
Our cheating, plagiarizing and non attributing Cambridge, that is…
Hilarious how you bring up an example of foreign invaders coming onto Chinese soil, starting a war by provoking China by murdering Chinese civilians, destroying Chinese temples, and offering protection from Chinese authorities to any convicted criminals who convert to Christianity, and then when the Chinese Boxers reacted against all these violent provocations, you blame it on China.
Americans massacred Chinese decades before the Boxer Rebellion over hapened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs_massacre
America was forced to use the indemnity to fund scholarships, because they found out that China had accidentally paid extra than what was specified in the Boxer protocol so they had to return the money.
By your logic on the Boxer Rebellion being a Chinese crime against foreigners, 9/11 was an American crime against Arabs, LOL.
But more importantly, is RFH’s penis big enough to hit the sides of his g/f’s vag? No.
I know I shouldn’t be responding to a [CRAZY PERSON/TROLL], but I laughed at this.
The comments here are full of foul language and stupid remarks. Those people just show how much frustrated they are in their life. Get a life and shut up. We do not care about your alexa stuff. This site should clean up.
Nah I’m joking I love it. My Rotary Club membership in China allows me to appear corporate but really I suck gay cocks and lick dogs assholes. That’s the sort of crazy stuff we do here on Beijing Cream. By the way I used to mooch up to Peter Humphrey until he went to prison. We used to sniff each other’s farts and swap wife’s. Now I just wank off to ladyboy porn and suck used pubescent sanitary towels mail order from Japan. It’s a crazy life here at Beijing Cream Anthony Tao thank you so much. I know you love my cheesy smegma.
Sometimes we think some Chinese have bad manners, impersonating others etc. Not sure who is who here as they do not have the guts (nor decency) to show their real face. Get lost bastards and nice try to impersonate others. Yes, this website sucks indeed. Last reaction, better things to do. So, I wonder if the main article here is genuine. Maybe all invented. So, will report as such. Bye and enjoy yourselves.
CONFIRMED ANTHONY TAO has left some serious debts in Beijing and ISN’T coming back.
Saw some paperwork today after asking a bit and heard and saw about Black Sun Bar he ran up a pile of pre-Christmas drinks in Chaoyang and Sanlitun on credit and has just fucked off!!! Also spoke to Hidden Tree folk a lot of people looking for him he’s blagged a shit load of credit and dune a runner
Guess he forgot to close his Beijing Cream moderation what a cunt if really happened fuck!
Yeah I can’t get hold of the guys either. Maybe pissed off the Chinese Gov with some of their writing and left real quick? Strange. But ain’t no-one home. Expat gossip sites are falling like sparrows in a bird flu hurricane.
Anthony Tao enjoyed trashing other people’s reputations, regardless of the fairness of that or of any repercussions to the folk he roasted. Beijing Cream has long been at the cess pool end of China blogging and I’m not sorry to see it disappear. It was always nasty and vindictive. With similar expat-with-grudges websites like Lost Laowai and Peking Duck also seeming to bite the dust maybe the Chinese blogosphere might clean up a little. Personally I have long been sick of all the backbiting and name-calling of various expats in China and I hope this marks the end of that trash talking.
You’ve already anticipated my travel advisory, Anthony.
Hollywood, my friend.
Way to go and fuck the bar bills and the cat, although you should provide the young lady with regular maintenance.
Every month on the dot, and not when you have some loose change
Give up the toot until you have reinvented yourself and become disgustingly wealthy.
This is your personal Manifest Destiny and no selling the bod on Sunset Strip, okay.
Anyway, it”s better than working in a chop suey takeaway in Kansas.
Alhamdulillah!
Inshallah the chinese will beat more western kaffirs. Even better would be if they kill them. The western people is a blight on this earth that needs to be eradicated. Mashallah to the chinese who beat the shit out of those western animals.
Alhamdulillah!
Inshallah the chinese will beat more western kaffirs. Even better would be if they kill them. The western people is a blight on this earth that needs to be eradicated. Mashallah to the chinese who beat the shit out of those western animals. They need to be taught a lesson
more of these vigilantes groups should be formed…it’s disgusting to see whitey with yellow fever.
Hello sexpats