Actors perform a scene in a Taiwanese TV drama where a mistress begs for the forgiveness of a wife. Photo: Wow News

   

Graphic photos of alleged mistresses being stripped naked by mobs of angry women seeking to publicly humiliate the accused are increasingly circulating on Chinese social media.

In a most recent case, images of a group of women photographed ripping the clothes from an unidentified woman on the streets of Puyang, Henan Province have gone viral since being uploaded on October 10.

The unedited photos show onlookers standing by as the victim was attacked by the gang.

The photos continue to circulate online despite local public security bureau officers requesting that websites remove them over concerns of privacy violations, according to the Zhengzhou Evening News.

A local policewoman, requesting anonymity, confirmed the incident with the Global Times. "The gang of four women attacked and sexually assaulted the victim on a street Friday morning," she said.

A criminal case has been filed and the case is under investigation, said the insider, without providing further details.

The incident is but one of many recent recorded assaults on alleged homewreckers circulating online, in which women are beaten, kicked and stripped by multiple assailants in public.

A three-minute video, titled "Mistress beaten and stripped at a mall in Heze, Shandong Province," was posted across multiple video-sharing websites in May. Three people - two men and one women - hurl verbal abuse, pull the victim's hair and forcibly take off her pants before dragging an alleged mistress into the street.

The video has received 620,000 views on popular video site iqiyi.com.

The majority of online comments praise the attack as a welcomed form of vigilante justice.

In many cases, blame is cast almost exclusively on the single woman while the infidelity of the married husband is largely overlooked.

Nude Internet celebs

A majority of Net users support the attacks, calling the actions "righteous" and the assaults "deserved."

On news website sina.com.cn, the Puyang spectacle garnered more than 13,700 comments since October 13, topping the website's "hot news list."

"Mistress who knows the man is married but enter in a relationship anyway deserve to be insulted and beaten," Web user Shuaiqide Langge commented on Sina's news page. 

Perhaps a reason why authorities turn a blind eye to such attacks is that the idea of public shaming was, until recently, also a tactic frequently used by Chinese police. 

In 2006, Shenzhen police officers paraded 100 prostitutes and their clients on the streets, attracting thousands of gawkers, according to a Xiaoxiang Morning Post report. The incident was met with criticism from the public and lawyers for privacy violations.

However, it seems the same consideration does not extend to mistresses. According to a recent Sina Weibo survey, 79 of the total 97 respondents voted that "mistresses deserved to be stripped."

Experts believed that the increased number of exposed affairs, especially among government officials, also contributed to the current general disdain for mistresses as purveyors of immoral behavior. 

Forty eight of the total 241 government officials that have stepped down since 2012 were accused of having extramarital affairs, the Beijing Times reported in September.

The report also implicated the mistresses as a main motivators behind their corruption.

Legal action

Not only does mistress shaming receive widespread support online, but also its victims are unlikely to press charges, experts say.

One of the reasons such incidents continue is because the victims are reluctant to pursue any legal action as it would attract more negative attention to themselves, said Liu Weizhao, a lawyer at Beijing Anbo Law Firm.

In addition, those that do decide to press charges may encounter authorities that in part weigh the case based on moral values, Liu said.

"In determining fault and punishment, police also consider whether the victims have wronged the attackers. So when the victims are found to be homewreckers, the attackers may be handed reduced penalties," Liu said. 

Experts also suggested that another reason behind the increased mistress attacks is because the legal system also provides those wronged within the marriage few avenues for legal action.

Mo Shaoping, a law professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that unfaithful spouses could once be charged with adultery, but that law was repealed shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The only other punishable offense is bigamy, which according to the Marriage Law, is defined as co-habitating or having children with someone other than one's legal spouse, Mo said.Such cases are punishable by up to two years in prison or detention.

"However, bigamy does not extend to those who have extramarital affairs and still primarily live with their legal spouse," Mo said.

During the Second Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 2009, a CPC representative, Ma Lan, offered a proposal that would allow victims of adultery to seek compensation from the third party, according to the Nanfang Daily.

Those who upload and spread images of mistress shamings and the websites that host them also face punishment.

"If the accusations are proven false, those who posted the images can be fined or detained for spreading rumors. If the facts are verified, they could be charged with violating the victim's right to privacy," said You Chao, a Beijing-based lawyer.

The same charges also would apply to websites, he added.

According to the Criminal Law and its judicial interpretation on Protecting Internet Security, anyone suspected of spreading false information online that is reposted more than 500 times or receives over 5,000 clicks can be charged with defamation of character and jailed for up to 10 years.