They called the police. They showed their wounds. They begged for protection.

她们报了警。她们展示了伤口。她们恳求保护。

But when two women in China tried to escape their violent husbands, the system that promised to protect them looked the other way, until it was too late. One woman died from being beaten. The other woman was left severely injured.

但当两名中国女性试图逃离施暴的丈夫时，那个承诺保护她们的体系却视而不见，直到为时已晚。一名女性被殴打致死。另一名女性身受重伤。

Their stories rippled across the Chinese internet, setting off a wave of anger over how the authorities treat domestic violence as a private family matter, even as state media has called for “zero tolerance” of abuses.

她们的故事在中国互联网上迅速传播，引发了愤怒，人们对当局将家庭暴力视为家庭私事的处理方式表示不满，尽管官方媒体已呼吁对虐待行为“零容忍”。

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said the country needed to “resolutely combat all forms of violence against women” when he spoke at a global summit for women in Beijing last month. But he has also fostered a culture that emphasizes women’s traditional role at home, creating a reluctance among the police and courts to break families apart even when there is violence.

中国领导人习近平在上个月北京举行的全球妇女峰会上表示，国家需要“坚决打击针对妇女的一切形式的暴力行为”。但他也培养了一种强调女性传统家庭角色的文化，这导致警方和法院即使在存在暴力时也不愿拆散家庭。

c. A crackdown on nonprofit groups has made things worse by shutting down volunteers who once helped to provide aid and support to victims of domestic abuse.

活动人士表示，法律执行不一致导致大多数涉案者未受惩罚。对非营利组织的打压让情况变得更糟，曾经为家庭暴力受害者提供援助和支持的志愿者无法继续工作。

One of the cases that prompted the latest outcry was Zhang Liping, a woman who died in September at the age of 43 from fatal injuries after a beating by her ex-husband.

引发最新抗议的案件之一是张丽萍案，她于9月因前夫殴打伤重不治，年仅43岁。

According to reports in Chinese state-owned media, both the police in Yingkou, a county in Liaoning Province, where the assault took place, and the local branch of the women’s federation, a group appointed and run by the government to represent women’s interests, were aware of the abuse but failed to intervene to protect her.

根据中国官方媒体报道，事发地点在辽宁省营口县，当地警方以及政府任命并管理的妇女权益代表团体——当地妇联——均知晓虐待行为，但未能介入保护她。

Her older daughter, Yu Xinmeng, said on social media before her mother died that she had called the police several times over the years. As she sought public donations to cover her mother’s medical bills, Ms. Yu made public her mother’s hospital records, divorce certificate, police paperwork and multiple photos showing her mother’s face, so swollen from beatings that she couldn’t open her eyes fully.

她的长女于欣萌在母亲去世前在社交媒体上表示，多年来她曾多次报警。在为母亲的医疗费用寻求公众捐款时，于女士公开了母亲的医院记录、离婚证、警方文件以及多张照片，照片显示母亲的脸因殴打肿胀到无法完全睁开眼睛。

The women’s federation in the county of Yingkou confirmed to the Nanjing-based Modern Express news outlet that it had received a call for help from Ms. Zhang’s daughter and told her it could only provide “counseling and legal advice.” The group looked into financial assistance for Ms. Zhang but determined she wasn’t eligible because she was from Heilongjiang Province and not from Yingkou.

营口县妇联向南京《现代快报》确认，曾接到张女士女儿的求助电话，并告知只能提供“心理疏导和法律咨询”。该组织调查了为张女士提供经济援助的可能性，但因她户籍在黑龙江省而非营口，判定她不符合条件。

Ms. Yu, the daughter, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Multiple phone calls to the Yingkou women’s federation went unanswered, and the local police refused to comment.

于女士未回应置评请求。记者多次致电营口妇联亦无人接听，当地警方则拒绝置评。

China has a wide-ranging anti-domestic violence law that was signed into law in 2016 and covers both physical and emotional abuse, and includes legal tools that authorities can use, like protection orders and mechanisms for reported cases to be expedited.

中国有一部范围广泛的反家庭暴力法，于2016年生效，涵盖身体和精神虐待行为，并规定了当局可使用的法律工具，如人身安全保护令以及加快处理报案的机制。

“The law on paper is quite advanced,” said Xin He, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. But when it comes to enforcement of the law, the authorities are failing many victims, and there are not enough social workers to support victims,” Professor He said.

“纸面上的法律相当先进，”香港大学法学教授贺欣说。但在法律执行方面，当局让许多受害者失望，而且缺乏足够的社会工作者来支持受害者，”他说。

“The system has a lot of inadequacies, which is why you see a lot of women that feel so helpless.”

“这个体系存在很多不足，这就是为什么你会看到很多女性感到如此无助。”

The police are not given proper training to handle domestic violence and the courts get tangled up in administrative hurdles.

警方缺乏处理家暴的专业培训，法院则常受行政程序掣肘。

In cities where there are more resources available, support for victims of domestic violence — typically women in abusive marriages — often clashes with the broader goal of the Communist Party to promote marriage and childbearing to raise the falling birth rate.

在资源较丰富的城市，对家暴受害者——通常是遭受婚姻虐待的女性——的支持往往与共产党推动婚育、提升下降的人口出生率这一更广泛目标相冲突。

Victims are encouraged to talk to their neighborhood committee, made up of low-level government workers who tend to deal more with day-to-day issues like garbage disposal. Then the local women’s federation will get involved, together with the police.

当局鼓励受害者联系居委会，该委员会由基层政府工作人员组成，通常负责处理垃圾清理等日常事务。随后当地妇联会连同警方一起介入。

辽宁营口的一条街道。营口一家旨在帮助女性的政府部门在接到多次求助后表示无法帮助张女士，因为她的户籍在其他省份。

“When the police intervene, then they will emphasize staying in the marriage. The police often see their role as a mediator,” said Minglu Chen, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney who studies gender and politics in China. “There are also cultural forces in China, because the family is seen as a source of stability and any wrongdoing that happens within the family, you have to keep it in the family.”

“警方介入时，会强调维持婚姻。警方往往视自己为调解者，”悉尼大学研究中国性别与政治的高级讲师陈明璐说。“中国还有文化因素，因为家庭被视为社会稳定的基石，发生在家庭内的任何不当行为都必须留在家庭内部。”

At two homeless shelters in Shanghai that are also meant to accommodate victims of domestic violence, workers told reporters from The New York Times that a person fleeing abuse had to first contact the local women’s federation to be allowed to stay there.

在上海两家同时承担家暴受害者庇护职能的流浪者收容所，工作人员告诉《纽约时报》记者，逃离虐待者必须先联系当地妇联才能入住。

Neither shelter was able to say how one should reach such an official. One worker at a shelter in the district of Huangpu said they had never housed any victims of domestic violence.

两家收容所均无法说明如何联系此类官员。黄浦区一家收容所的工作人员表示，他们从未收容过任何家暴受害者。

A local Shanghai women’s federation did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

上海当地妇联未回应多次置评请求。

A week after Ms. Zhang died, the details of another case of abuse, 1,500 miles away in the southwestern city of Chengdu, emerged. A woman named Ms. Xie, who chose not to disclose her first name, told state broadcaster CCTV she was attacked by her husband more than a dozen times over her three-year marriage and that she had repeatedly asked the police to detain him.

张女士去世一周后，另一起虐待案件的细节在2400公里外的西南城市成都浮出水面。一名选择不透露全名的谢女士告诉CCTV，她在三年婚姻中被丈夫殴打十几次，曾多次要求警方拘留他。

In April 2023, she went to a court in Chengdu to seek a restraining order but was turned away. The court argued that the case was outside its jurisdiction because her husband was not originally from Chengdu.

2023年4月，她前往成都一家法院申请人身安全保护令，但被拒。法院称因其丈夫并非成都户籍，案件不在其管辖范围内。

Only 6,351 restraining orders were issued in 2024 across more than 3,000 courts nationwide. This amounted to an average of just two orders per court, according to a calculation by CCTV.

根据央视计算，2024年全国3000多家法院仅发出6351份人身安全保护令，平均每家法院仅两份。

When her husband found out that Ms. Xie had applied for a restraining order, he beat her for hours. She was sent to a hospital the next day, where doctors found that her liver, kidney and small intestine had ruptured. Her injuries, which included a broken nose and ribs, left her in critical condition for a week.

当得知谢女士申请保护令后，其丈夫将她殴打数小时。她次日被送往医院，医生发现她的肝脏、肾脏和小肠破裂。包括鼻梁骨和肋骨骨折在内的伤势让她在重症监护室度过了一周时间。

In interviews with state media, and in videos on her social media account, Ms. Xie said that in addition to calling the police six times, she had sought help from the local women’s federation, the civil affairs bureau, her residential committee and the local court. She was given the contact of a divorce lawyer, told how to apply for a restraining order and handed some paperwork to start the divorce process.

在接受官方媒体采访以及其社交媒体账号的视频中，谢女士表示，除了报警六次，她还向当地妇联、民政局、居委会和当地法院求助。她获得了一位离婚律师的联系方式、申请保护令的指导，以及启动离婚程序的一些文件。

Her husband was arrested five days after she was sent to the hospital. The court finally granted a divorce a year later in May 2024. The man, He Zhongyang, now her ex-husband, was sentenced to 11 years in prison several months later for “causing grievous physical harm with intent.”

在她入院五天后，其丈夫被捕。法院最终于2024年5月批准离婚。现在是她前夫的何忠阳数月后因“故意造成严重身体伤害”被判处11年监禁。

Her ex-husband had recently appealed his sentence, and a Chengdu court rejected the appeal on Sept. 9. Ms. Xie had urged the court to hand down the death penalty.

他对判决提出上诉，成都一家法院于9月9日驳回上诉。谢女士曾提请法院判处死刑。

But, she told Chinese media, she respected the ruling.

但她对中国媒体表示，她尊重裁决。

“It’s OK,” she later said in a video posted to her social media account. Looking directly into the camera, she gave a thumbs up. “I have survived another day. That is already very impressive.”

“没关系，”她随后在社交媒体账号发布的一段视频中说道。她直视着镜头，竖起大拇指。“我又活了一天。这已经很了不起了。”