Outcry sees wife-beater suspended by employer

A man in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, has been suspended by his company after a video of him beating his wife in front of their child drew widespread criticism online.

New Silk Road Trading, a subsidiary of Airport Group in Shaanxi, said the company deeply condemned the domestic violence inflicted by Wang Pengfei, a deputy director of one department of the company.

The company has decided to suspend him and hand him over to its disciplinary inspection division, it said in a statement on Thursday, adding that it has sent people to visit Wang's wife.

In the video, Wang was seen repeatedly hitting his wife on the head while she held their child on her lap. After the child moved aside, he threw her onto the sofa, sat on her, and continued to hit her on the head. An older woman later took the child away but did not do much to intervene.

Police in Xi'an had received a report from Wang's wife and were looking into the case, the Baqiao division of Xi'an's public security bureau said in a statement on Thursday.

An initial investigation found Wang had beaten his wife after they quarreled over a trivial matter on Tuesday.

The Shaanxi Women's Federation said it has paid close attention to the incident and strongly condemned Wang's behavior.

China bans any form of domestic violence. The federation will offer necessary legal aid and psychological help to Wang's wife, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Women's legal rights and interests should not be violated and the whole of society is encouraged to pay close attention to them and put an end to any form of domestic violence, the federation said.

It called on women threatened with domestic violence to call the police and women's federations and use legal means to protect their rights and interests. It also appealed to witnesses of such incidents to stop them.

According to China's Anti-Domestic Violence Law, any perpetrator of such behavior will receive administrative or criminal punishment based on the severity of the acts.

The incident triggered strong condemnation of Wang from netizens on social media platforms. On the Sina Weibo micro-blog platform, different hashtags about the incident had garnered hundreds of millions of views by Thursday night.

The video was horrifying to watch, said one netizen. Another said that once there are acts of violence in a marriage, there is no point in the couple staying married.