Two men detained following sexual harassment claims

Two men, one a college student, have been detained by Beijing police after allegations they had sexually harassed a number of women went viral recently.

On Wednesday, the Beijing Public Security Bureau stated on its WeChat account that it had detained a 20-year-old student, identified only as Zhao, "on suspicion of the relevant violation and crime".

The bureau did not specify the exact allegations against Zhao, adding that his case is being investigated by police in Haidian district.

On Thursday, the bureau declared the detention of a second man, a 40-year-old surnamed Du, who works at an institution preparing students for art and film school, who had been accused by netizens of sexually harassing female students. Du's case is also under investigation.

Based on the information available online, Zhao has been identified by media as Zhao Weixian, a student in the Beijing Film Academy's directing department, while Du is Du Yingzhe, principal of Yingluzhantai, the training institute in question. Du is also a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy.

The two suspects gained public notoriety after netizens posted statements on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, accusing them of sexually harassing teenagers.

Some Weibo users accused Zhao of luring or forcing over 20 female students to change into swimming suits or short shorts in his room, while he shot private photos of them using the excuse that it was part of his homework, and then sexually harassing them.

On Monday, Shi Ziyi, an online influencer who has 1.5 million followers on Weibo, claimed that she once attended the institution and that Du, who was her tutor, had sexually harassed her and had also raped several teenage girls over the past 15 years.

Those posts quickly triggered widespread public attention, with some netizens supporting their claims and others saying they were also victims of sexual harassment.

On Wednesday night, the academy said that it has taken Zhao's case seriously and will learn a lesson from it. The academy added that it will also strengthen education and management for students.

On Sept 16, the academy announced that it had set up a special team to investigate Zhao after receiving reports saying that the student had borrowed online Baidu storage accounts from others to download pictures, claiming that he was testing software with friends.