BEIJING – A Chinese university said that it would expel a student because she had had “improper contact with a foreigner” and “damaged national dignity”, after videos circulated online that suggested she had been intimate with a Ukrainian video gamer.
The announcement set off heated debate in China. Some commentators applauded the decision and said that Chinese people – particularly women – were too enamoured of foreigners.
But others said the expulsion smacked of sexism and paternalism, and compared it to examples of people accused of rape or sexual harassment on campus who had been punished more lightly.
Many also criticised the university, Dalian Polytechnic University, in northeastern China, for publicly shaming the student by posting its expulsion notice on its website last week and identifying the student by her full name.
“If there is anyone who truly undermined national dignity in this case, it was not the woman whose privacy rights were violated,” Dr Zhao Hong, a professor of law at Peking University in Beijing, wrote in an opinion column, “but the online spectators who frantically humiliated an ordinary woman under the banner of so-called justice, and the educational institution that used stale moral commandments.”
The university said the student’s conduct, in an incident it said took place on Dec 16, had “caused a negative impact”. It gave no details, but said the student was being punished in accordance with a university regulation about “civic morality”.
That regulation reads: “Those who have improper contact with foreigners and damage the national dignity and the reputation of the school shall be given a demerit or above, depending on the circumstances.”
Chinese social media users quickly linked the announcement to videos shared on that date by a Ukrainian professional video gamer Danylo Teslenko, who goes by the nickname Zeus.
Mr Teslenko, who had been visiting Shanghai for an esports tournament, had posted videos of himself with a Chinese woman to his Telegram channel, where he currently has about 43,000 subscribers.
He has since deleted the videos. Screenshots and recordings still circulating online show the two apparently in a hotel room, with the woman seemingly aware she is being filmed, but do not show any sexually explicit behaviour.
In an emailed response to questions, Mr Teslenko said that he deleted the videos when he realized they were spreading on Chinese social media.
“I understood that these clips, although not intimate in nature, were too personal and inappropriate for public sharing,” he wrote. “That was my mistake, and I sincerely apologise for it.”
Mr Teslenko also addressed the outcry in two posts on the social platform X on July 13, after news of the expulsion spread. He wrote that he had believed he was sharing “just a normal moment from life”, not anything “disrespectful”.
But on Chinese social media, there was general agreement among commenters that there had been disrespect. The only question was by whom.
Users who cheered the university’s decision said that the woman had shamed China by making it seem as if Chinese women were promiscuous, especially with white men.
A tech blogger with 14 million followers wrote on the platform Weibo that “fawning over foreigners” would never bring respect, and that “some mistakes are unforgivable”. Some state media outlets also shared the woman’s full name.
But others asked why the vitriol seemed to be directed primarily at the woman, rather than at Mr Teslenko, for sharing the videos. Mr Teslenko frequently makes crude jokes, including about women, online; in posts to his subscribers on Telegram accompanying the Shanghai videos he had indicated that he would show photos of her if his posts drew enough likes.
Other users criticised the university for trying to enforce outdated moral standards. According to the university regulations, other behaviour that could lead to censure included listening to music too loudly and any premarital sexual activity.
The woman could not be reached for comment. The university did not return requests for comment.
Some people also pointed out that Chinese men who post on social media seeking or showing off Caucasian wives are often hailed as national heroes and paragons of masculinity. Others highlighted the case of a male student who was found guilty of rape and put on probation by his university, or that of a male professor who was allowed to keep teaching after sexually harassing students.
Some prominent legal scholars encouraged the female student to sue the university for infringing on her rights to privacy and an education.
“As an adult woman, whether she has a sexual relationship with others is entirely within her right to sexual autonomy,” Dr Zhao wrote.
Some official media outlets also offered measured defences of the woman.
The Global Times, a tabloid controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, wrote a commentary that said “problem students” should be “guided to recognise their mistakes”, but in private. Others noted that the expulsion was not final – the notice said the student had 60 days to appeal – but that the revelation of her identity was irreversible. NYTIMES
