A recent sexual assault in Beijing has set tongues wagging and cyberspace abuzz with controversy, as one of the alleged rapists was exposed as Li Tianyi, the son of a renowned vocalist and senior commissioned officer.

Seventeen-year-old Li, along with other four violators, had been held in police custody for gang-raping a drunken girl after meeting her in a bar and taking her to a hotel room.

Li's father is Li Shuangjiang, a "major general" (the Chinese army hands high ranks out to its top entertainers) who made his name as a military crooner caroling odes to red flags. His mother is an award-winning military soprano.

This isn't Li's first spot of trouble. In September 2011, back before he changed his name, he was caught driving a BMW without a license or a car plate, and savagely beat up a couple over a trivial traffic dispute. He was sent to a juvenile facility for a one-year detention.

Debate on the young ruffian refuses to blow over. Public anger against rich kids is mounting on Sina Weibo. For them, Li's felony epitomizes an era of copious absurdity, in which the undeterred and unscrupulous kids of the moneyed and mighty operate on the margins of legality.

Others saw poor parenting, arguing that pampering and permissive parents shield petulant children from punitive measures. Several celebrities voiced their sympathy for Li, claiming minors should be pitied and pardoned.

Much as the comments on the criminal and his allies are incisive and imaginative, almost none of them concentrate on the severity of the crime. While leniency is lavished on the culprit, very little compassion went toward the victim.

To top it all, some netizens questioned the integrity of the woman, blaming her for going to a nightclub, which in China are always seen as sleazy.

These victim-blaming accusations came as little surprise in a patriarchal culture where vestiges of sexual purity still mold and imprint the public mindset.

Confucianism holds that "death by starvation is preferable to loss of chastity." There is a social stigma attached to women stripped of virginity even by force. The blame for "bodily impurity" is primarily placed upon the victim.

Such logic has crept into daily life, like the alert from Shanghai Metro last year that women passengers should cover up, suggesting it was their not so demure dress that had enticed groping hands.

Although the official figures of sexual aggression cases are difficult to quantify, anecdotal evidence shows victims may swallow the shame rather than stand up to bullies, for fear of enduring finger-pointing from gossipers and being ruled out by the household for the rest of their lives.

Even when victims muster up courage and bring charges, they are most likely to confront the rapists' lobbyists or intercessors that threaten or bribe them to reverse testimony and recant.

Last year, the parents of a Chinese student who sexually attacked his landlady in Iowa City were charged with witness tampering in the US after they contacted the lady, who they hoped could be bought off with a hefty red envelope.

This would be economically viable back in their homeland China, where the raped women on court receive a stunningly paltry and inadequate compensation from the abuser. Their physical and mental trauma is way undervalued.

In December 2012, mass crowds took to the streets across India, protesting against a barbaric gang rape of a college girl on a bus, who eventually died of fatal internal injuries. The nationwide indignation has spurred Indian politicians to attack the tolerance of sexual harassment and tighten security.

Earlier that year, public outcry over a trio of mobsters that gang-raped, strangled, burned a Ukrainian woman to death was so intense that the president had to intervene personally to pacify the irate nationals.

China appears, at least for now, a relatively safe haven for women compared with their beleaguered peers else where.

Nevertheless, perhaps the worse has not yet been revealed, given the untold unprincipled bigwigs, uninvolved bureaucrats and unconcerned bystanders.

The author is a Shanghai-based freelance writer. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn