Man who allegedly boasted on social media about caging mentally ill wife - Chinese authorities investigate him

                           

Authorities in China's Shaanxi Province said they are now investigating a Chinese man for allegedly abusing his mentally ill wife and locking her in an iron cage.

The allegation was reportedly posted on WeChat by the public account Xianshidemuyang (The Look of Reality), claiming that the man, identified as Li Limin, had previously boasted about abusing his wife, Tang Xiaoyu, on his Kuaishou account.

Li’s videos on the local Tik Tok-like video-sharing app have reportedly been removed, while his account, which had over 780,000 followers, appears to have been banned on Kuaishou.

Li was reportedly a jobless man from the city of Yulin who ended up running livestreams. To allegedly make his streaming more interesting for his viewers, he shared details about how he has abused his wife. Sources claimed that in one of Li’s livestreams, he told a story about how he bound Tang to a chair for three days.

Citing a witness, Xianshidemuyang alleged that Li was seen locking his wife in an iron cage attached to the back of his motorized tricycle when he had to leave his house. Xianshidemuyang’s WeChat post also included screenshots from one of Li’s live streams which showed alleged ligature and burn marks on Tang’s body.

Li was accused of taking Tang from the side of a road in 2009, forcing her to marry him and holding her against her will since then. Unconfirmed sources who reached out to Xianshidemuyang claimed that Tang looks similar to Wang Guohong, a student from Qinghai Province who went missing in 2009.

Li allegedly bragged on Kuaishou about having a son and daughter with Tang in 2012 and 2015, respectively. He purportedly sold their daughter for 30,000 yuan (approximately $4,746) and kept their son.

Li has also been accused of causing Tang’s mental disorder since he would beat her often and confine her whenever she attempted to flee. According to an unidentified source, Li earned fame and fortune through his livestreams and his alleged work with other vloggers by “helping find missing people.”

Tang’s case came to light after a similar story was reported in late January about a video showing a mentally ill woman left in an outdoor shed with a chain tied around her neck. Authorities launched an investigation into the mother of eight after a video of her went viral and public outrage grew.