China’s #MeToo Movement Reaches Major Buddhist Temple

China’s “highest ranking Buddhist monk” has become the latest high profile public figure to be accused of sexual harassment as the country’s #MeToo movement continues to expose cases of alleged abuse and misconduct.

On Monday, we reported how a series of cases had emerged under the #MeToo banner in the past few weeks. The latest allegations center on Longquan Temple, which until recently was best known as China’s “tech temple” for developing a robot monk and undertaking a number of projects related to cutting edge technologies.

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The allegations against senior abbot Master Xuecheng were detailed in a 95 page letter posted to Chinese social media, from where it was quickly scrubbed.

#MeTooChina #MeToo was exposed in China’s Buddhist Temple Longquan Monasteries. Two members of Longquan Temple, who are also PHDs of Tsinghua University, issued a report exposing the Abbots of Longquan Temple sexually harassed their women believers.The report is banned instantly. pic.twitter.com/6dMXHMRsbL

— FreeChineseFeminists (@FeministChina) August 1, 2018

The allegations have been disputed by the temple, while the abbot himself has published Longquan’s response on his Weibo, where the story now appears to be allowed after previously being censored:

And State media outlet Global Times has now run a report, at least on their English site:

The abbot of a Beijing-based temple, who is also a national political adviser, allegedly sexually harassed several nuns and “controlled their minds” to force them into sexual relations.

Shi Xianjia and Shi Xianqi from the Longquan Temple said in a report to relevant governmental departments that Master Xuecheng, the abbot of Longquan Temple, sexually harassed several nuns, including sending illicit messages to them and forcing them to have sexual relations with him, according to a copy of the report circulated online on Wednesday.

However, the temple said the two whistleblowers have “forged materials, distorted facts and spread false information” that misled the public.

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