Caijing Online, 2009-05-06
Nearly four weeks after 22-year-old karaoke center waitress Deng Yuqiao stabbed two Dandong County (Hubei Province) government officials—killing one—in alleged self-defense, new case developments continue to attract national attention. After local police issued their official investigation report alleging Deng used “undue defense” (excessive force), the Dandong County Procuratorate officially indicted Deng on criminal charges of “intentional harm.” Prosecutors also cited her acts of self-defense and voluntary surrender to police as mitigating circumstances that allow “a lighter or mitigated punishment or an exemption from punishment.” The charges were filed with the basic-level county court, not an intermediate court as typically required in cases where the sentence could be life imprisonment or death, as is statutorily allowed for intentional harm.
Huang Dezhi, the surviving local official injured by Deng, is currently in administrative police detention—in effect signaling he will not be criminally prosecuted, after being expelled from the Communist Party and his township government positions by the local Party discipline inspection committee. The case has stirred reflection on Chinese attitudes toward rape and self-defense; in a Southern Weekend op-ed, China University of Politics and Law professor Xiao Han critiques traditional beliefs in a-life-for-a-life and the blind valuation of human life over more abstract ideals of dignity and honor as reasons why so many Chinese people disagree with the right to unlimited force in defending against rape that Article 20 of the China's Criminal Code so clearly bestows.
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