Sichuan county police shield township enforcement cadre by repeatedly burying restaurant owner's rape complaint

A restaurant owner reported being raped by a local cadre, and the police buried the file. In Sichuan’s Junlian County, public security officers repeatedly rejected criminal complaints after a township enforcement official assaulted a female business owner inside her restaurant, The Paper reported via Sina News. Officers released the suspect immediately, doctored interrogation records, and officially decreed that no crime occurred. The cover-up broke only after the desperate woman attempted suicide, forcing higher municipal authorities to step in.

The case exposes how cadre protection rackets operate through the systematic suppressing of complaints. It recalls the 2022 Xuzhou chained woman scandal and the silencing of tennis player Peng Shuai. County police acted as a security shield for the local bureaucracy. Protecting a party official’s career mattered far more than investigating a violent sexual assault against a private citizen.

The cover-up demonstrates the deadly reality of a subordinated judiciary. In China’s county towns, police departments and courts answer directly to the local party political-legal committee. When a cadre commits a felony, the system protects its own. Victims have no independent court or free press to turn to, leaving self-harm as their only desperate weapon to pierce the wall of silence.