Chinese identity provoked beating of HK citizen
(Beijing Today)
Updated: 2004-09-20 09:43

A businesswoman from Hong Kong was beaten in Chaoyang District simply because she called herself Chinese.

Wang Xiaoju, 62, is seen on the mobile at a Beijing hospital. [sina]

From her bed in the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Wang Xiaoju, 62, said that the attack occurred inside the Yabao Building on Yaobaolu, the Beijing Times reported on Tuesday.

The incident began when she entered store No. 300 in that building and was surprised when a sales girl asked if she was Chinese.

"I said, 'of course I’m Chinese’," she recalled. The sales person then told her that Chinese were "not welcomed in the store."

Wang said she quarreled with the young woman until an older man appeared and assaulted her.

"He hit my left eye and I lost consciousness for around 10 minutes," Wang told the Beijing Times. When she awoke, she promptly called the police.

However, the accused attacker, Mr. Qi, who works as a translator at the store, denied the beating ever occurred.

"We quarreled and then I tried to get her out of the store. I never hit her, but when I touched her sleeve, she fellon the ground. I thought she was pretending to faint, so I did not help her up," he was quoted as saying in the newspaper's report.

Doctors at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital said Wang's face, head and neck showed signs of trauma, her blood pressure was far above normal and the vision in her left eye had been seriously damaged.

Wang later said she had been planning to make a $10 million business investment in Beijing, but had decided to take her money to Tianjin after the incident.

Wang Yu, the salesgirl who quarreled with Wang Xiaoju, said she only told the older woman that the shop did not sell goods to Chinese and did not try to drive her out.

The head of the safety department at Yabao Building, surnamed Wang, told the Beijing Times that no stores in the building refused Chinese customers, but because they tended to exclusively stock European-style clothing, they may not have many garments suitable for domestic shoppers.

The owner of store No. 300, a man surnamed Gao who did not give his full name, refused to comment on the incident beyond saying he was sure the police would find the truth.

Most of the shops in Yabao Building are wholesalers of clothing that target foreign buyers.

Last October, many local media reported shops in the building were refusing Chinese customers, a policy widely criticized as discriminatory.

Chaoyang police are still looking into the case. Wang has said she plans to file a lawsuit against Qi.

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