Heilongjiang TV presenter tells of 15-year sexual blackmail ordeal
Staff Reporter 2012-12-07 14:20
Wang Dechun was called the "First Beauty of Shuangcheng" in her heyday. (Internet photo)
After Wang Dechun, a former TV presenter in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province, used her real name on a microblog to accuse a local People's Congress delegate of forcing her to maintain an unwilling sexual relationship with him, she first went into hiding for a fortnight before reappearing to give her first interview to local media. Her life has been ruined and now she wants to tell her story, she says, according to China Times, our Chinese-language sister newspaper.
On Nov. 23, Wang Dechun claimed that Shuangcheng City Industry Corporation general manager Sun Dejiang had used blackmail to force her into a clandestine affair and that he had coerced her into having sex with him when she was seven months pregnant with her husband's child. The state news agency Xinhua confirmed on Monday that the Shuangcheng National Congress Standing Committee has been suspended as a delegate and he has also been sacked as general manager of the corporation. The allegations of rape are still being investigated.
After she came out with her claims, the journalist says she was afraid of reprisals and went into hiding in another city. She had no contact with the outside world for more than 10 days before coming forward to grant an interview to the Chinese-language Beijing Times, in which she told of her ordeal.
"I'd never expected that it would cost me so much to save face; moreover, I lost my family which I treasured the most," Wang said. "I can't face a new life any more, my life has been ruined. Now I only want to have my say...I believe [that] there is justice, and nobody can escape from it."
Sun, who is currently being investigated by the party's disciplinary authorities, but has reportedly asked the Shuangcheng radio and television secretary to tell Wang that enough is enough and that he hopes they can reach a settlement.
Wang is unlikely to accommodate his wish. "I can face the investigation of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, all I have said is the truth, I ask for fairness and I will not offer terms of settlement to Sun Dejiang," she said.
Wang said she met Sun in 1996 when she was covering a story about a brewery in Shuangcheng, of which he was the director, after which he pursued her in various ways even though he knew Wang was married. The blackmail began after Sun drove Wang to a remote place after a dinner party and raped her while she was drunk. "I was vaguely conscious and fought against him for a long time, but in vain. After having sex, he took out a recorder which had recorded the sound of our intercourse. He said if I refused him, he would broadcast the recording openly, blackening my reputation in Shuangcheng."
One day in the winter of 1999, when her husband was not at home, Sun called at her house. After he got in, he pushed Wang, seven months pregnant at the time, to the bedroom. "I cried and struggled, begging him to let me go for the sake of my unborn baby, yet he still forced me to have sex with him."
Despite her private despair, in her public life Wang was riding a wave of success at the time. She was a local celebrity, queen of local TV reporters and had been dubbed the "First Beauty of Shuangcheng City." "Face and honor were the most important thing for me at that time, I could not bear to lose my job," Wang said, explaining how she chose to compromise her marriage repeatedly, though at the cost of ever greater pain. In 2005, Wang and her husband divorced. She said her husband did not tell her at the time the reason why he divorced her, but he admitted years later that the reason was his knowledge of her relationship with Sun.
Wang said she wanted to leave Shuangcheng as she feared that one day the scandal would emerge, and she also wanted to escape from Sun's control. She partnered with others to start businesses, but all her ventures failed. A year ago, she encountered financial difficulties and borrowed 150,000 yuan (US$24,000) from Sun. Wang said the condition for the loan was that she continue her relationship with Sun.
After receiving the money, Wang quite Shuangcheng immediately, Sun was reportedly furious, feeling that she had defrauded him and was now blackmailing him. Wang later found that her parents had been threatened by Sun, whereupon she contacted the Shuangcheng broadcasting authorities and said that she would rather lose her job than remain silent any longer about her treatment at Sun's hands.
