A Chinese-Canadian pop star was arrested by Beijing police on suspicion of rape, according to police. Kris Wu was accused of luring young women into sexual relationships with his ex-group EXO, officers said. Earlier, Wu, 30, was accused by a teenager of having sex with her while drunk. Wu denied the allegations.
Wu also seduced other women with promises of jobs and other opportunities, according to several others who contacted the teenager. The woman said some of them were under 18 but did not specify whether they were younger than China’s age of consent of 14. Police said Wu was ‘criminally detained’ on suspicion of rape ‘as a result of the information reported on the internet,’ including that he ‘repeatedly lured young women into sexual relationships’. Other details were not provided.
Previously, the pop star denied the allegations. ‘There was no ‘groupie sex’! There was no ‘underage’! In a post shared to his social media accounts, Wu wrote: ‘If there were this sort of thing, please everyone relax, I would put myself in jail!’ It was the no. 1 trending topic on Weibo on Saturday night, and some commenters began telling Wu online, ‘Get out of China!’
Chinese national Wu is a citizen of Canada, according to a police statement. A short opinion piece online by the People’s Daily about the case says ‘Having a foreign nationality is no protection, and getting big names does not entitle someone to immunity.’ The teenager made her allegations on social media and subsequently in an interview with the internet portal NetEase. At least 10 brands, including Porsche and Louis Vuitton, ended endorsement and other deals with Wu after that interview appeared.
Based on the interview, she believed Wu was an employer seeking to hire her. His staff forced her to drink instead. Since she did not go to bars, her tolerance was low, and she was drunk after two drinks. She woke up in Wu’s bed the next morning. She said he was kind to her and promised to take good care of her that morning. This was the beginning of what she thought was their relationship, the teenager said. The situation remained the same until he stopped responding to her messages in March.
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At first, she apologized for her actions. However, after discovering that other women had been treated similarly, she believed there were others who were worse off. ‘I don’t think this is just about me. I think it’s a problem with the atmosphere in the entertainment circle in China,’ she told NetEase in the interview. His response to the young woman was, ‘I did not force her to drink,’ and there were not the kinds of details she describes. My silence encouraged these rumors, and I couldn’t stand it. There were a lot of people there that day who can bear witness’.
In another twist in the story, last week police announced they had arrested a man for defrauding both parties. As a ruse to elicit personal information from the woman, Liu posed as a victim who’d experienced a similar incident with Wu. In addition to the teenager, Wu also requested that authorities investigate the case.
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