‘I beat when I want’: 8-year-old Chinese boy violently assaults 2-year-old girl for snacks, China News

An 8 year old boy filmed beating a two-year-old girl and knocking her to the ground outraged the Chinese public and sparked a debate about raising children.

The boy, surnamed Zhuang, is a second-grade elementary school student in southern China. Zhuang was filmed brutally beating the girl – so he could steal snacks she was holding. He attacked the girl so violently that four of her teeth were damaged.

Zhuang entered the girl’s house, where she was playing alone, before physically assaulting her to steal the snacks.

Zhuang started kicking the girl’s head after she refused to hand him the snacks. He continued the assault even after the girl fell, tried to get up and escape. He fled when the girl’s grandfather arrived on the scene.

“Zhuang’s parents tried to deny the attack until we showed them the surveillance video,” the girl’s parents wrote in an open letter.

“I beat whenever I want,” Zhuang replied when the victim’s parents confronted him.

The girl suffered a head trauma and four of her teeth were damaged, which required two months of treatment. She was traumatized by the attack.

The girl’s family say they are outraged by the attitude of the boy’s family who have not apologized or expressed remorse for their son’s actions. However, they pleaded with the girl’s parents not to call the police.

“We can’t afford to compensate you, and you can’t do anything to punish us,” the boy’s parents reportedly said when confronted.

The girl’s family, who originally planned to give the boy an opportunity to apologise, decided to call the police after her parents’ aggressive and unrepentant response, with the case currently under investigation. investigation.

After the attack was reported in the media there was immediate discussion on social media in China, on Weibo there were 17,000 comments on a post containing the video at the time of writing.

Many users criticized the boy’s behavior and his family’s response, as well as child protection laws.

“What would happen if his grandfather didn’t show up on time?” It’s so scary,” one commenter said.

“Oh my God, that poor little girl! How could the boy’s family behave like this? Really hope the police impose some punishment on the boy,” another commented.

In 1991, China passed a Juvenile Protection Law that regulated juvenile offenders under the age of 14 and determined that they should bear no criminal responsibility.

A lawyer from a Shanghai-based law firm told the South China Morning Post: “If a person who has not reached the age of 14 commits such an act, he will not be punished, but his guardian will be responsible for subjecting it to strict sanctions. discipline. In this case, the parents of the boy could be asked to better supervise their child and to compensate the victim.

The 2020 data on juvenile crimes in China from 2014 to 2019 revealed that around 50,000 minors were arrested mainly for theft, robbery and assault.

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.