Former superstar singer in China, where he was born, Canadian Kris Wu has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and deportation from the territory for rape and debauchery, a Beijing court announced Friday.
The case had sparked a notorious scandal in China, where stars tend to have a calm image. It has shed light on the private life, sometimes dissolute, of certain personalities.
Kris Wu, 32, a Canadian of Chinese descent, once had a very high profile. Spoiled by the media, adored by his many followers, often young, he was an ambassador for many luxury brands such as L’Oréal or Louis Vuitton. Actor, he also starred in the Luc Besson film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in 2017.
Until last year, when a 19-year-old Chinese student accused the Canadian, known in China by his Chinese name Wu Yifan, of date raping her when she was 17.
“The defendant Wu Yifan was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison for rape, as well as deportation from the territory,” the Chaoyang District People’s Court in Beijing, which was trying the case, said on Friday. .
“Collective sexual debauchery”
In addition, the singer received an additional prison sentence “of one year and ten months for collective sexual debauchery,” the court said.
The two cumulative sentences were rounded up to a total of 13 years in prison.
“From November to December 2020, the accused Wu Yifan, at his home, forced three women to have sex with him, taking advantage of the fact that they were drunk and did not know how to resist or were not in a position to oppose. it,” the court stressed.
The actor and singer was also ordered to pay, in a separate tax evasion case, some 600 million yuan (81 million euros), the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday, citing Beijing tax authorities.
They accuse Kris Wu of having declared an income much lower than what he actually earned.
predatory behaviors
The Canadian first became known in China as a member of the Chinese-South Korean group EXO. He left the collective in 2014 to pursue a solo career as an actor, singer, and model.
After the outcry unleashed by the rape case, brands such as Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, L’Oréal and Porsche, of which he was an ambassador, suspended their partnership with the singer.
Other victims had testified to accuse Kris Wu’s team of predatory behavior, including deliberately drunk invitations to karaoke parties.
These accusations had reinforced an embryo of the #MeToo movement in China, which began in 2018 when several women spoke out to denounce sexual harassment.
While not opposed to better rights for women, the communist regime closely monitors social movements that may pose potential threats to stability and its power.
A young woman, Zhou Xiaoxuan, accused a star host of Chinese public television CCTV, Zhu Jun, in 2018 of forcibly kissing and caressing her while she was an intern.
The case was considered the country’s first real #MeToo case.
Too “effeminate”
But in the first instance, then on appeal this year, the courts finally rejected his complaint, considering that there was insufficient evidence.
In 2021, professional tennis player Peng Shuai said in a lengthy online post describing her troubled romantic relationship with a former high-ranking Chinese leader that the latter had once “forced” her into a sexual relationship.
His message was quickly censored. The athlete then said that her words had been misinterpreted.
The Kris Wu case occurred in the context of a major government campaign against certain behavior in the world of entertainment, from tax evasion to morality considered immoral.
In the viewer in particular, content considered “vulgar” broadcast on television and social networks.
Thus, certain reality shows and telecrochets have been banned from the air, as have tattoos or even stars with an appearance considered too “effeminate”.
Source: BFM TV
